


Loki on Earth Part III: Plotting

by MarvelFic1984



Series: Loki on Earth [3]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Captain America (Movies), Jessica Jones (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Multi, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-01
Updated: 2019-02-01
Packaged: 2019-07-23 08:05:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 40,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16154981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MarvelFic1984/pseuds/MarvelFic1984
Summary: Following a pardon from the international tribunal after his questionable assistance in defeating Thanos, Loki finds himself on Earth trying to ingratiate himself with the local populace.  In Part III, he and his new wife, a former regular human who has developed empathic powers (thanks to Loki's use of Frigga's experimental magic), are spending time at the East Coast Avengers compound outside of New York where many of the Avengers are on mandatory respite.  Steve Rogers grows increasingly uncomfortable as the empath sizes up his self-imposed solitude and encourages him to get out and meet people.  And meet someone he does.Unbeknownst to them, as Loki searches around the Earth trying to find his place, a threat approaches from across the galaxy.





	1. The Avengers Clubhouse

The full pardon granted in the wake of his questionable assistance in defeating Thanos after the infinity war, thanks to his highly emotional and persuasive testimony to the international counsel and the good reputation of his brother, was a small comfort to many New Yorkers. Following that catastrophe, most bygones were bygones. The snap, its fallout, and eventual reversal had put a lot of things into perspective. Still. It was unnerving for many who called the boroughs home to see Loki looking so smug.

Brooklyn born Steve Rogers was no exception.

It didn't help that Steve didn't take well to doctor-ordered respite. The barrage of “you’ve earned it!” well wishes as he was put out to pasture were like salt in the wound. All of a sudden the Avengers compound, once a bustling hive of importance, was a peaceful place that boasted little to do. Still, Steve kept to his soldier’s schedule. Rise early, exercise, read the paper, submit to whatever physical examination or therapy session someone had insisted on, and slowly gravitate towards the common room for some company. 

Usually it took the better part of the day for the bored Avengers to descend to shenanigans. When Loki and his wife were visiting, it happened much faster. As usual, the entire conversation made Steve uncomfortable.

"Look, not to boast, but I've seduced my way out of more prisons than you have heard of, and I know you're denying it now Steve, but you were my mark."

"Loki," Steve scoffed, "that's disgusting. I arrested you. I compared you to Hitler."

"You did, and I felt you grab my hands when you cuffed me. You were my plan B, make no mistake."

Thor was almost beside himself with laughter.

"Steve I told you. You roughed him up too much, he's into that."

"Shut up brother. I am not usually wrong about this. Having a contingency plan for getting out of jail is a key component of my longevity."

"Honeybear," his wife chimed in looking aghast, "you realize that's horrifying."

"What do you mean? To be fair, usually when I've been arrested there has been good cause."

"No I mean sleeping with your guards. That's very unethical, even criminal."

"Hardly. They had a good time, I got out, everyone wins."

"I didn't mean for you. I mean for them. You're their prisoner, that's assault."

"Assault? I assure you my beloved, none of my guards has ever gotten the advantage on me."

She did not look convinced.

"I understand that if I were human the implications are potentially...alarming, but I am hardly defenseless.”

Thor chimed in despite not having completely swallowed his third bagel.

"He is talking about his rapist pocket."

Steve stopped sulking long enough to uncross his arms. "His what?"

"Forget he said anything." Loki muttered dismissively.

"Loki has a pocket universe. For rapists."

Mrs. Odinson raised one eyebrow and then a second.

"It was mother's idea. I had been arrested a good number of times and naturally run into some more unsavory characters. The trail of corpses I left in my wake caused her a bit of trouble when she came to bail me out. So she gave me a pocket universe to use instead. As a gift."

"For his birthday." Thor said having chased down his food with a coffee. "Mother never spoke of it and I have not seen it, but in his defense, it sounds like something she would do."

"Of course you have not seen it, I do not know how to bring anyone back." Loki was mildly annoyed. "And before you ask, of course I tried to send Thanos there, I'm not stupid. Or, perhaps I am, I was punished severely for the attempt." He cleared his throat a little as he attempted to appear light-hearted.

At this point everyone else in the room had stopped eating or talking.

"So are they all alive in there just fighting each other or do you actually have a pocket universe of rapist skeletons?" Natasha asked as if this was perfectly ordinary breakfast conversation.

Loki paused. "I have no idea, to be honest." He resumed his cereal, taking appropriately dainty bites as though he were seated at a royal banquet. His place was the only one fully set. He had pretended not to notice that Tony ate standing up as though he may take off running at any moment. Like a barbarian.

"That was thoughtful of Frigga. Asgard seems like a nice place to grow up." No one was ever sure whether Natasha was being sarcastic or serious.

"It was the best," Thor beamed. "Every morning we would engage in yard exercises for hours. Training, fighting, feats of strength. Loki would depart after the first couple of hours for his sorcery sessions with mother while I and the warriors, their souls committed to Valhalla, continued combat training with father. Then we would engage in afternoon reading and study until the great evening banquet." It was clear he would have kept going if anyone had asked.

Loki's wife was still staring incredulously at her husband, whom she had married a few months earlier knowing who he was, but without knowing he had his own private hell dimension specifically for abusive prison guards. "Sweetie, sometimes you're terrifying."

He smiled a little and turned slightly. "Sometimes?" She laughed.

"Speaking of which," Thor said, clapping Loki on the back, causing a splash of milk to spill from his spoon which was very undignified, "It is time for exercises."

Loki dabbed at his mouth with his napkin and folded it before setting it down. "If you'll excuse us," he said with a small bow.

"Can we please start with throw? You've been gone and I want to do throw."

Steve looked perplexed for a moment and spoke up. "You mean catch?"

The brothers turned and looked at him. "Catch?" Loki said inquisitively. He paused a moment to think.

"That sounds extremely challenging." Thor said with no small amount of joy in his voice. "Bold suggestion Steve." As the brothers departed towards the compound’s outdoor training arena, the remaining Avengers watched as their clothing seamlessly transformed from barely passing New York brunch attire to militaristic Asgardian training gear.

"I never get tired of watching that trick," Tony said admiringly. He wandered off with a fresh black coffee, looking intently at his tablet. Natasha returned to her quarters, seemingly unfazed by the oddities of the morning. Steve continued to sit on his high top stool next to the bar where the small group had gathered for breakfast, although he had lost his appetite for pancakes. He was pretending to read the paper when the newly alone Mrs. Odinson hopped up on the stool next to him.

She certainly was a vision in her long, peach colored dress that was reminiscent of her more formal signature gown. The newly minted empath had gained notoriety quickly since her marriage to the trickster and ascension to godhood, a peculiar way of living. But Steve identified with the discomfort of new found powers and the accompanying fame. 

There wasn't much point in pretending not to be uneasy sitting next to the stunning wife of an intergalactic criminal when she could detect his emotions a football field away. He tipped his head politely. 

“Mrs. Odinson.” 

"They don't throw a ball." She said playfully.

Steve looked up from his paper. "What?"

"Thor and Loki when they train. They don't throw a ball. They throw each other."

Steve folded his paper and put it down to look at her. "They do what?"

"It's a combat warmup exercise I think. Thor hoists Loki up and throws him as far as he can and then runs after him. Loki has to land on his feet or get up before Thor gets there. Then he hoists Thor and throws him back the other way. And so on. Supposedly they’ve done this in actual fights." Her smile was warm and amused.

Steve thought for a moment and then laughed. "No wonder they looked so startled when I said catch."

She laughed back. "I can only imagine what they think the challenge is. Maybe they'll finally wear themselves out."

As their laughter died down she became a tad more serious. "I'm sorry Loki made you feel uncomfortable. He obviously misread you all those years ago." Steve tensed up again as she continued. "I know he’s called the trickster but technically his domain is perception.” She paused to see if he would say anything but he didn’t. “Usually he's picking up on something when he draws conclusions."

Steve shifted in his seat. “Not this time.”

“Ok, forget about that. Let’s talk about what I pick up on.”

Steve smiled despite himself, based on the tone of her voice he could tell where she was headed. "I’ve heard about this. Am I about to get a consult with the Love Goddess?"

She sighed. "I know, I don't help myself distance from that nickname, do I? When your powers are empathic, you find that really is mainly what people are thinking about."

"I'm sure you mean well, but I get enough from Tony. I'm not some raging ball of..." he looked for words he was willing to say to a lady, "frustration."

She chuckled and glanced around the room. "Not much more than anyone else in here anyway. But that's not what I mean Steve."

He shifted again. He didn't like therapy with a psychiatrist who was armed with a stack of university credentials and a couple decades of experience. An actual empath was nearly intolerable. At least she was nice. For the moment. He'd heard stories.

She paused in silence for an almost impossibly long time.

"When you found out she'd never married, Peggy Carter, is that what you wanted for her?"

The question hung.

Steve had been literally stabbed before. The sensation was not dissimilar. He ran his hand through his hair. "Wow, you don't beat around the bush do you."

"Was it?" He did recall that in her human life, she'd spent some time as a lawyer. He found her questioning no less formidable as a breakfast companion.

He sighed. "No. It wasn't."

She said nothing and just looked at him patiently.

"I don't know if it was because of me. We didn't even know each other for that long and she was a career soldier first and a woman second. Sorry, that came out wrong, I didn't mean" he added hastily.

"But if you'd learned she'd married and had seven children, you would have been a little sad but mostly very happy for her." The honorary Asgardian was certainly earnest.

"Well, yeah.” He waited for her to say anything. “People tell me it’s romantic.”

“What’s romantic?”

“Well, that I still care about her after all this time I guess.”

"Those people aren't doing you any favors. And I don't think so."

He looked at her. "You don't?"

"No. To be honest I think it's mildly vindictive."

At that he was taken aback. "Vindictive? How could it be vindictive to care for someone"

"Not to care. To cloister yourself. You punish yourself to vicariously punish her.”

“Punish myself?”

“You felt terrible when you learned she'd never married. You didn't want solitude for her. Why would you think she would want that for you?"

He looked at her. “Maybe I just want to be alone.”

She shook her head. “Some people are perfectly happy alone. I don’t get that you’re one of them.”

Steve grew tense and ran his hand through his hair again. "You know my therapist mostly wants me to talk about Thanos."

"You have an easier time talking about Thanos. You'll do anything for other people before you think of yourself."

Steve grew frustrated. "What would you have me do anyway? You realize Tony has thrown wave after wave of women at me during my supposed period of relaxation. And now you're on my case and I want to scream." She sensed his anxiety skyrocket.

She delicately put her hand on his shoulder. "I wouldn't have you do anything, you're a grown man." She waited a moment before adding. “If it were up to me, I’d see you think of your own happiness for once.”

"Well, thanks. But I think for my own happiness maybe I just need to hit something."

At that moment a voice came over the intercom. Thor was breathing heavily.

"Steve, we give up. How the hell do you do catch, this is impossible."

At least this broke the tension. Mrs. Odinson and Steve both stifled a laugh. "What have you tried Thor?"

"Well, it starts as normal, I throw him, but I cannot get there to catch him, I'm not that fast, and we both just wind up falling. I give up. How is this game played?"

"Thor, humans throw an object back and forth. Like a ball?"

There was a period of only breathing. "You do what?"

"If you want to throw a person, which apparently you do, you'll need a third person, you don't have the same person throw and catch."

Mrs. Odinson and Steve listened as they heard Loki's voice faintly in the background. "What is he saying?" He also sounded winded.

"He says we need three people." Thor shouted, looking away from the intercom. "Thank you Steve, we will see you shortly." And the intercom clicked.

Steve regretted his earlier wish. "When they're sparring, it's just for exercise right? They're not trying to hurt each other?"

She grimaced slightly and feigned a smile. "It's been nice knowing you Steve."

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A few hours and one short trip to the infirmary later, Steve laid in his purposefully austere military-style bunk enjoying the soreness that follows a good workout, a sensation he seldom felt anymore. He had not realized how half-hearted his exercises had become until he had been subjected to a surprise game of catch using people. Loki was heavier than he looked. And, to Steve’s amazement, so was Thor. Loki had departed early, remarking suggestively that he liked to see his beloved after exercises. Thor mumbled that Loki had become insufferable and was just making excuses before declaring "Defend thyself!" and chucking a large wooden shield squarely at Steve's chest. The startlingly large wooden sparring sword Thor then brought straight towards him would have killed most humans. Steve expected his ribs would be healed by the morning. Mostly.

The endorphins and pain made it somewhat easier to cope with the thoughts racing through his head since it had been invaded by the empath. Did he maintain his solitude out of some twisted sense of spite? Peggy had never married but he doubted she endured an entirely celibate lifetime in the army. He never really got the chance to ask and would not have known what to say. If she had held out for his return all those years, she was in ignorance of his fate. He had the advantage of knowing of her what she never learned of him until it was too late.

She wasn’t coming back.

His self imposed faithfulness to no one in particular was, in a way, just a lie to keep himself from letting go of the 20th century he had left behind. Not just the century and all its people. There had been so much promise in a kiss that had gone unfulfilled. 

Would she wish on him to never enjoy another one? A probing question he had never asked himself. If he thought she had turned down a chance at love to honor his memory, wouldn’t he have shouted into the abyss of time, please, just live. Was she somewhere saying the same to him? The Asgardians enjoyed the benefit of messages from their departed loved ones, occasionally transmitted from Valhalla directly to their heads. What Valhalla was Peggy in, Steve wondered. But he came back to the core admission

Wherever she was, it wasn't here.


	2. The Avengers Have a Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mrs. Odinson gave Steve a lot to think about after she weighed his loneliness and confronted him on his solitude. But he did not expect to meet someone so interesting so soon. Detective Andrea Jones, an NYPD detective specializing in powereds, seems to have captured his attention. The other Avengers can hardly resist eavesdropping as the usually cloistered Captain appears to open up to someone he just met.
> 
> While everyone else is focused on the new couple, Loki and his bride find time for mischief.

The next day, the compound's occupants were enjoying a casual mid-morning in the common room. The brothers had concluded their exercises. Loki lounged with his wife on a sofa, enjoying books. Both were solidly overdressed for what couldn't fairly be called an occasion, as usual. Thor laid on the ground with his feet on a coffee table, tossing a baseball to himself as he attempted to grasp the appeal of catch. Natasha, Bruce, and Tony, who were even worse at respite than Steve was, were looking over Tony's latest design sketches. Agent Hill, who was on light duty and was ostensibly working, looked enviously at the beverages most of her companions were enjoying. It wasn't even noon. They should either be ashamed of themselves, or just let her have one.

Nick Fury came in to the room. "Most of you are aware that we are having a social gathering this evening for the dedicated NYPD officers of the Powered Individuals Division who have been cross training here all week with SHIELD. To that end we will need you to vacate this room by 3:30 so they can get it ready. You are all welcome to attend, provided" he paused and looked decidedly in Loki's direction "that you are on your best behavior."

"I'm always on my best behavior, Auntie."

"That's what scares the shit out of me, Booty," Nick replied without breaking eye contact.

Loki's wife looked at him inquisitively. "It's just a joke darling, based on something I said when we met."

Nick continued to stare. "It's hilarious," he said, without blinking or cracking a smile. His tone suggested that it was not, in reality, hilarious.

"Nick, why do you get to keep working when the rest of us have been ordered to relax?" Tony objected.

"I rested when I was dead. Besides," he added, "I tried. Do you know how quickly things fall apart around here without me?"

He didn't wait for an answer before he turned and left. 

"Powered Individuals Division?" Thor asked without getting up.

"Us." Tony replied. "Well, you guys anyway, me in my suit," he gestured around the room. "You and yours have your very own cops, congratulations. They thought it was a prudent measure after, well, you'll remember." He too looked squarely at Loki, who offered a half hearted nod in response.

"Well, this will be a fun party." Loki's wife said, implying the opposite.

"Shall we retire to prepare darling?" Loki hopped off the couch and offered his arm.

"It's seven hours away," Bruce said after them as they walked towards their quarters together, "and you two can change your clothes instantly just by thinking about it." His critique received no response.  
\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A person does not stop being a wallflower when he becomes stunningly handsome. Or a decade later. Or, if you include time spent frozen, over half a century. Steve Rogers prepared himself for the social the way he always prepared himself for parties: remembering that the only thing worse than going is lying in your room thinking about how you should have. With his beer in one hand and the other hand in his pocket, he was more focused on looking less awkward than he was on the conversation. It wasn’t working.

"Honestly like we've been talking about this week, there's a balance," Nick opined to the gathered NYPD detectives who were reluctant to mix with the Avengers. "Powered individuals can develop a sense of entitlement, like they are the law. But sometimes they are also speaking from experience, they may have seen threats the rest of us cannot imagine. How can you tell when you're talking to someone whether he's developed a god complex or whether he really knows something you don't? This is my reality people, every day. Steve here knows all about that don't you Steve?"

Steve was caught slightly off guard. "What do I know?"

"About butting heads with authority."

Steve shrugged. "I just do what I think is the right thing. I hope that hasn't given me a god complex, I guess I wouldn't know if I had one."

A voice chimed up from among the small crowd Nick had assembled. "Well, you show up on time for parties. Gods apparently don't."

There was a mostly deserved collective chuckle in which Steve joined, noting the distinct absence of two of the three local Asgardians. Thor was loudly enjoying himself but his brother and sister in law were nowhere to be seen.

"That's ok, they can take their time." Steve replied, "I'm not sure which I find more intimidating, the psychotic one or the one that can read my feelings like a magazine."

"Are you serious?" Nick scoffed. "You're more scared of a harmless young Venus who's neutralized that menace better than if she were one of my own agents than a guy who can't be jailed, summoned an army to this city, and apparently won't die when strangled?"

"You're talking to a guy who charged up to Thanos and grabbed him, Nick, maybe this is a voice of experience like you told us." Chimed the same voice. Steve finally looked up to see where it was coming from and momentarily lost his breath. Looking back at him was a pair of sharp, unafraid eyes atop a measured but genuine smile and a long blue dress.

Nick shook his head. "I doubt it. He's fought both alongside and against Loki but only met the Mrs. just this week."

Steve took a swig from his beer. "Yeah I did. And I got my palm read, so to speak. I stand by it." He laughed a little bit. "Confronting yourself is far more terrifying than confronting any monster.

"See?" said voice from the smile. "Like you said Nick, the voice of experience." Turning to Steve she extended a hand. "Detective Andrea Jones, NYPD PID." Steve shook her hand. He wished for the fiftieth time in his life that he was the kind of guy who could say something smooth like "charmed" or "pleasure's all mine" but went with his usual safe "nice to meet you."

But he was barely able to get it out as her head and the others turned towards the door from the Avengers and guest quarters. Their self-titled gods had finally decided to make their appearance. Tony Stark wandered over to where Steve was standing.

"Speak of the devil. And I mean that literally." Nick muttered as he walked away from his encircled crowd towards the bar.

"I guess someone feels like he has to make a grand entrance," Steve remarked to Detective Jones who had taken a step forward to stand beside him in Nick Fury's absence.

"Someone has been making his grand entrance all afternoon and finally decided to join us," Tony quipped as he sipped his beverage. Detective Jones snorted and Steve blushed. 

"It's hard to blame them," Detective Jones leaned in and said to Steve more directly. "If I looked that good I'd make sure I was the center of attention too."

"You do," Steve said before he'd had a chance to second guess his thought.

"Ha. They said you were polite, they didn't say you were a flirt."

"I'm not." Steve said, now thoroughly embarrassed. "Sometimes I think without talking. I mean talk without thinking. You know what I meant." He took a sip from his beer, mostly to force his mouth to stop whatever it was doing.

Detective Jones had also heard that he was surprisingly easy to fluster. What she hadn't expected was that it was adorable.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Moments earlier in the hallway, the trickster and his bride were preparing to make their appearance. After a fair amount of bargaining he had persuaded her to abide by his usual green, although she had pushed it a shade bluer than his usual. She preferred flowy, ethereal gowns textured like a chiffon over the armorlike leather that was popular on the more militant Asgard, a place she'd never been but was now inextricably tied to. She had started adding a simple leather waistband to her gowns to compliment her spouse's homeland attire. 

As for him, he struggled to imagine a formal occasion without full leather but had liked the cloak he'd adopted on Sakaar and had added one to his usual ensemble. This cloak was deep emerald and black with a single silver stripe down the back. The silver was reminiscent of an honorific he cherished, conferred on him during their time in Wakanda. But that is a story for another day.

"Huh," she paused in the hallway. "Well that may be a new one."

"Oh?" He inquired. He enjoyed watching her discover the scope of her powers.

"Like a little ping. Like hearing a bell ring."

"That is a new one. Do you know what it means?"

"Nope." She paused. “Well, I have one thought. It was like a little spark.”

“A spark? That’s just Thor showing off.”  
“No, not his kind of spark. Like the spark of two people hitting it off.”

He looked down at her and stroked her hair a moment. "You're sure it wasn't me? And," he paused a moment, "the mirror that's behind you?" She turned and looked. They did look stunning together even if he was a brat.

"You know you are doing a poor job of fighting your growing reputation as a love goddess, making those kinds of observations." he said, smugly.

She shrugged. "I'm not hearing you complain."

"Absolutely not," he leaned in, "are you sure you want to attend this party?"

She brushed off what she sensed were impending advances. "Aren’t you curious what the ping meant?"

"I confess I am." he admitted as he resumed his place beside her and held out his arm. He did also need to keep being observed to be friendly and repentant in public. Especially in New York. Especially with New York law enforcement. His lifestyle had long required a backup to the backup plan for getting out of jail. It had been suggested to him that the best plan was behaving himself, but he did not find that to be realistic.

As was the product of centuries of practice, since at this kind of gathering he was not to be announced (a custom he missed) he prepared to walk through the door with an appropriate mix of grandeur and aloofness befitting a prince deigning to attend a party for guards and knights. That he was now a prince without a kingdom mattered little. His goal was to attract everyone’s notice without seeming like he was trying too hard to do so. He only succeeded halfway. His desire to be seen was unmistakable. But seen he was.

Across the room, two people who had just met were, in fact, hitting it off. Others had wandered to new conversations as Captain Rogers and Detective Jones spoke increasingly to only each other.

"Listen," she said to him, "not just yet, but I actually need you to introduce me to her at some point tonight." She pointed to the goddess who was making polite conversation across the room while her husband retrieved drinks.

"Why's that?" He asked a little nervously. "Trouble with a fella?" No one says fella anymore Steve. It's possible no one ever did. Stop, internal monologue. Nobody asked you.

"Ha. There would need to be a fella for him to cause trouble. No, it's actually sort of an assignment. I got permission to seek her help on one of my cases. It's no rush, I just want to see if she'll agree to meet me later to talk about it."

He thought for a moment, intrigued at what use the NYPD PID may have for an empath. He doubted they would trust intelligence gathered by Loki’s wife, even if she was a former human from New York. "What are you hoping she'll do?"

She gulped a little. "Help someone who's been through a lot." She paused. “I can't give up on this person. I'm willing to try anything at this point." She sipped nervously at her champagne glass.

Steve gathered up the courage again to look directly at her as she looked across the room at her last ditch plan. He knew that expression. It had not occurred to her to give up rather than care so much. Letting someone down was out of the question. He realized he liked Detective Jones already, and not just for her apparent willingness to carry the conversation. Or the dress. He grappled with his usual defensive internal response, that he was already spoken for, but stopped himself as he remembered.

He wasn't.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After making polite obligatory conversation, Loki guided his escort to a sofa and sat beside her as they enjoyed their drinks.

"Any further developments?" There was no point in concealing from an empath, let alone his wife, how eager he was for gossip. So he didn’t.

"There's a woman talking with Steve," she said under her breath without looking over. The new sense she'd gained since her ascension was not based on hearing or seeing but it was similar to both. If color auras were how she perceived feelings, the area between Steve and Andrea would have been bright. If emotions were a sound, their hearts would be ringing. As it was, she perceived a level of excitement, tension, and attraction between them that sounded like the echo of the earlier ping. But instead of growing dimmer as the echo died down, it got louder, bigger, brighter, the more they talked.

Loki waited until an opportune moment to turn his head to see. "Oh yes," he remarked, "well she's lovely. And he's obviously a little smitten. Darling, I have the urge to make trouble, can we please."

"If you interfere I will never touch you again." 

"Interfere, goodness no. But you wouldn't deny your husband a small pry." He put on his best hopeful look.

"Obviously not." She stood up from her seat and ventured over to a stool at the bar where Steve was leaning, doing his worst at doing his best to not look like he was trying to look cool. Loki went around to the other side of the bar. This was the sort of gathering that required security clearance to even know about, so there were no servers. Loki didn't mind the opportunity to position himself facing outwards, towards the new prospective couple. As much as it was his preference not to serve anyone, he had been known to overlook the discomfort in exchange for the kind of information people only provide their bartenders.

"There's enough for one more glass," he said to the detective after he finished topping off his wife, and he held the champagne bottle at the angle indicating a willingness to keep pouring. The correct “want some?” angle for a bottle is universal.

Seeing his face up close, and looking her in the eye, was more startling than she had expected. She had been young during the attack on New York when his demands, and then his army, had been splashed across every television. Still pursuing her criminal justice degree at the time, if she had been at the police academy she may have been among those called up early to assist. As it was, she cowered in a basement, waiting to see if it would all blow over. 

Years later she had watched his testimony, in full, before the international tribunal about the trauma, abuse, and control Thanos had exercised over him before and during that invasion. She believed it about as much as anyone else, which was approximately only just enough.

None of that prepared her for the fact that the smile he extended her when he held out the bottle was frighteningly familiar. But at least now the eyes were less sunken and sallow. There was a brightness to them. Not that she was willing to look at them long enough for full analysis. Nick Fury's lectures had advised against it.

These thoughts passed through her mind quickly as she extended her glass towards the bottle and accepted champagne delivered with unnecessary flourish.

"This is Detective Jones of the NYPD, she was just telling me about some of the locals she works with. She specializes in formalizing partnerships between the department and powered vigilantes." She extended her hand for a handshake following Steve’s introduction.

"Charmed," said Loki, as he turned her outstretched hand slightly to plant a kiss on the back of it. She managed not to react or recoil as she realized his touch was oddly pleasing, a trait of the Asgardians that was also on one of the week’s powerpoint slides. She wished his gaze would break. The way he looked at her, she felt like an animal at the zoo. Reading about someone and meeting them were two very different things.

"I presume you have enjoyed your week with SHIELD." Loki tended to treat all conversations with the grace of a courtier for at least the first thirty seconds. 

"It's been very interesting. I want to express my appreciation for the covert work the two of you did last year with the Boko Haram camps."

The goddess put down her glass. "Our what?"

It was less of a question and more of a scold. Detective Jones suddenly felt as though she had been taken down at least three pegs in only two words.

"Your missions into their camps when you were on assignment with agents from Wakanda. Nick's description made it sound..."

Loki also put down what he was holding. "Description?" He turned his gaze from the detective to his wife. "And here I thought Nick Fury of all people understood the meaning of the word 'covert.'"

The goddess turned back to the detective with startling focus. "Did he explain that the men of Boko Haram must never know they were manipulated or all our hard work will be undone?" Steve realized that as she said this her fists were clenched as hard as her teeth.

"Hey, let's take it easy." Steve rose to her defense. "She wanted to express appreciation, I'm sure she understands that the information doesn't leave this room."

"Absolutely, I would never..."

The goddess softened. "I'm sorry, it's not you. We will have to have a talk with Nick about what he includes in his training materials. We had thought that information required...the highest security clearance."

"Mine was very high to get into this program, I don't think he's giving this presentation to the beat cops."

Loki leaned forward meaningfully. "Then why don't you show you deserve your clearance and rehearse exercising care with your words." He did not smile. Out of the conversation participants, Loki was the one most inclined to lead the group back to innocuous small talk. He had certainly smoothed over many tense situations with a well, or even poorly timed joke or anecdote, having been highly trained in the manners of court and duties of a prince. On this occasion, however, he elected not to and instead remained obstinately silent. Suspecting correctly that this interaction was not going well, Detective Jones decided to cut to the chase.

"Actually," she turned with no small gladness to his companion, "I was hoping to talk to you tonight."

"Oh?" Detective Jones realized only a moment too late that the stare of the goddess was no less intense for being centuries younger. She was reminded of Steve's earlier comment about which one was more to be feared.

"A local vigilante. Jessica Jones, a modified powered who possesses superhuman strength, also happens to be the finest investigator in the city."

"I remember the name from when I used to be a New Yorker," nodded the goddess. "She killed that rapist? The one who had controlled her for a year?"

"And many other people besides her, yes, that's the one. She is extremely valuable to the city but, well, difficult to..." She had thought through this speech enough times she thought it would proceed on autopilot. But no amount of imagining could prepare her for actually standing between Captain America and Loki to ask a favor of a former New Yorker turned empath. Especially not when she had already apparently fucked up.

"Control?" Came Loki's incredulous question. The look on his face suggested he found the prospect of being controlled to be less than preferable. "Can I ask what is a modified powered?"

"It's just a departmental designation for an individual who achieved some kind of superhuman powers through artificial enhancements like chemicals or robotics. Steve and Tony would be designated as modified powereds, if they fell under my jurisdiction."

"Interesting. What's my designation?"

"Well, um." She grew momentarily flustered at the question. "Other."

"Other?"

"Um, well you don't exactly fit into our categories. Alien, mystic arts, magic item wielding...I guess you're cross-categorized. I think officially you're just 'other.'"

"I love it." His wife couldn't help but smile whenever he was that pleased with himself.

"Is he right, you want to control her? That's not really something I can help with..."

"No, no. I wasn't going to say control. She's, well she's kind of traumatized to be honest with you. Traditional attempts at therapy and rehabilitation have completely failed. When we heard you were going to be in town for a while, well, I guess we sat down and discussed whether there was a possibility for...we've been calling it advanced counseling."

"Advanced counseling. You want me to modify her emotions."

"Well, no. I mean yes. I mean..."

"I don't think she's going to be very receptive to anything she suspects is reminiscent of mind control, do you?"

Detective Jones looked up at the deadly serious look on the face of the woman before her and felt suddenly naked. She realized that the empath could sense her rising anxiety as her plan fell under scrutiny, but was doing nothing to assuage it as she continued her piercing look of total disapproval.

Detective Jones sighed. "No. She isn't. That's part of the problem. I was hoping to meet with you and at least go over the file. We are..." she paused meaningfully, "going to run out of options short of institutionalizing. Which we don't want to do for a whole litany of reasons."

The Asgardian's look suddenly softened again. The conversation was a bit of a rollercoaster. "I understand. Bring your file. Monday morning, 10:00, here?"

The detective brightened. "Absolutely, yes, thank you, thank you so much."

Loki interjected. "Well that's quite enough business. This is a party." He took his wife's beverage from her hand and set it down on the bar as he reached out with his other hand towards hers. He held her hand as the two of them walked to the end of the bar until it was no longer between them and then escorted her to an empty area and they began to dance.

Everyone has known that couple that signed up for ballroom dance lessons as part of a last ditch effort to avoid divorce, the couple that can perfectly execute the dance moves but with no smoothness of cooperation and little eye contact, grasping at the remnants of denial. 

Dancing of the kind the room's occupants now observed was what such a doomed couple envied; two people so profoundly comfortable in each other's arms, so smoothly synchronized, that the mood was contagious. 

It was not at all clear that dancing was initially part of the plan for this gathering, but as Mr. and Mrs. Odinson glided through the open space, possibly floating slightly off the ground (which had not been in the powerpoint) those around could not resist but to join. Pepper was first, pulling a flirtatiously reluctant Tony away from his cocktail, followed by Bruce with Natasha and Sam with Bucky. Thor rescued a hapless Agent Hill who had been trying with no success to secure the attention of Detective Misty Knight all evening, but Detective Knight was stubbornly and indulgently sulking.

Steve watched a moment. Detective Jones put down her drink and extended her hand to him. Of all the things he missed about the twentieth century, the requirement that a man be the first to gather the courage to ask for a dance was not one of them, he thought to himself as he happily accepted.

"So, was it as you suspected?" Loki whispered into the ear of his partner at dance and life as he witnessed the detective pick her wallflower.

"It was better. When you kissed her hand, he sent out a wave of jealousy that he quickly suppressed. And when I stared her down, Lancelot there barely resisted the urge to leap to her defense."

"Marvelous," he whispered as he turned his attention to the dance.

"We should do something about that presentation," she whispered.

He smiled. "Oh yes. Darling if you will?"

The humans were aware of some of the ways in which Loki and his wife’s powers could be combined. They had found out accidentally all those months ago that he could, in an intimate moment, amplify her emotions enough to spread them to anyone within a few miles. The humans had politely dubbed this exercise of power a fertility ritual, and its power had driven her rising popularity. Usually inclined towards jealousy, Loki found the goodwill extended to them both and goodwill among humans was a currency he was not at liberty to sacrifice to jealousy. Besides, he enjoyed his wife too much to begrudge her a measure of happiness and admiration. 

And it helped that he could take credit for conferring the powers on her.

But the humans were not aware that just as he could amplify her powers of feeling, she could amplify his powers of perception and mind.

As they embraced on the dance floor, he did as he had done many times before. He separated his verbal consciousness from his physical body. While his body danced, his mind traveled down the halls of the compound, through locked doors whose advanced security was not designed to stop spectral tricksters. 

With the embrace of his wife, as she conferred on him heightened awareness and strength, his spectral form enjoyed a privilege it never had when he was alone. It entered the SHIELD computer.

Much of what was in here he had already explored. They had been staying here a few days and, contrary to the beliefs of his beleaguered brother, they didn't spend all the hours in their room incessantly making love. Many. But that left plenty of time to tracelessly hunt information.

On this occasion he was just looking for a presentation, something he had not previously thought to seek out. Medium security files were less interesting to him. He would have to remind Fury that his exploits as a local hero were meant to go under high security. The humans didn't need to know about Loki’s forays into do-goodery as he forged his wife's path to godhood. 

PID Training Materials. Very creative Ant. Introduction, Modified Powereds (Interesting may have to read that one later), aha, Asgardians. Two hours on Asgardian gods when only three known gods remained, four if you considered Valkyrie goddesses which he debated in his head. Either way, was honored. But that was a lot of slides to go through. He would try not to dawdle.

He paused for a moment on key traits. The god-touch, one of his favorites. Conjures clothing, hardly a secret. Can survive the vacuum of space, fire, heavy impacts, extreme deprivation, this was like a trip down memory lane. Draws power from the godplane Valhalla. He had only learned that one relatively recently, knowledge that proved useful.

Accomplish your task Loki, pleasure reading later. On to specifics. Thor's page was first. Orientation: inclined to good but potentially dangerous. Ha. Powers: extreme strength and durability, lightening, Mjolnir. Yawn. Well, Fury would figure out he was the one who modified the presentation, although he would never figure out how. Best have a little fun. Extreme gullibility ought to be added to the list of powers. Extreme gullibility and prolific body odor.

Loki's slide was next. Orientation: unknown. Ah, he thought, that was perfection. Powers: Mind control (with the mind stone), illusion, memory retrieval, extreme durability. Oh sure, leave off strength just because he's slender built. One doesn't need to resemble an overstuffed sausage to have physical strength. He thought to add overstuffed sausage to Thor's slide just to be complete. He wished he could be in the class when Fury went to give this presentation the next time.

His wife's slides included a small amount of information on her ascension, a brief description of her known empathic powers, and, here it was. A summary of her known deeds since she gained her powers. At least that slide had the decency to stamp "highly confidential" at the top of it. Brilliant Nick, I'm sure that will fix everything. Time for some creative input. New details. Has never been to Africa, highly sexy, much smarter than Thor, likes sweets. 

He quickly glossed over the open questions at the end of the presentation, do they have humanity's best interests at heart, is Loki's wife his new moral compass, blah blah blah, and that's enough. He resisted the urge to leave foul drawings as he preferred to allow himself some plausible deniability, and was about to withdraw his consciousness from the computer, when he thought better of the decisions that would have led Fury directly to him. Best that the humans not yet know of this power. He went back and deleted many of his additions, and replaced the description of his exploits in Africa with the word "Classified." It was a shame, his annotations improved the presentation tremendously.

He was still giggling when he rejoined with his corporeal form which caused his still dancing body to giggle out of nowhere. Fortunately due to the music only his wife noticed. 

"Successful?" she inquired, fairly confident of the answer.

"Very" he gloated and he rewarded her with a twirl.


	3. An Unexpected Invitation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After spending all evening talking to one woman at a party, Steve Rogers is stunned when she presents him with an invitation he is not sure how to accept. He seeks, and receives, aid from a surprising source.

Eventually the party's participants tired of dancing and returned to their beverages and conversations. Gossipy heroes with little currently to do couldn't help but notice how deep into the evening Steve continued his conversation with the striking detective. Steve hardly realized how much time had passed and did not even note the departure of his two best friends who retired quietly without bothering him and his new companion.

"Hey Steve?" Detective Jones said after she finished her third champagne of the evening, just enough to have a little reckless courage but far from enough to make her lose her wits. "Do you want to get out of here?"

"I mean eventually but right now I'm on mandatory respite and they think it's best for me to remain in residence at the compound."

She laughed. "No I mean, do you want to come to my apartment?" She looked at him expectantly before adding “Tonight?” as though perhaps a lack of comprehension was the cause of the hold-up.

Steve felt his heart rise to his throat. The answer that came to his mind refused to rise to his lips. For someone who had grabbed Thanos by the glove, he found himself oddly paralyzed when faced with big eyes and a disarmingly nervous grin.

"Um..." Was the best he could get out.

"It's ok, that was way too forward, I shouldn't have said anything," she remarked hastily.

"No, I mean, I...can you give me a minute?" He put down his beer and stood up before he added "Wait here, don't go anywhere." For lack of anything better to do she mimed a sip from her empty champagne glass and did her best not to look anxious about her impulsive decision to invite Captain America to her apartment.

Steve walked to the rear of the room and found Loki's wife uncharacteristically solo and without her glass, her husband engaged in an argument with his brother by the bar.

"Steve, what on earth is the matter, is there a threat? Is everything ok?" She sensed extreme terror in him, enough to cause her alarm that something was horribly wrong.

Steve paused for a moment and grimaced before he let everything come tumbling out. "You were right, I am not interested in being alone, I do want a relationship, I haven't been hiding behind Peggy because of guilt it's because whenever I see someone I'm interested in, I feel like the 90 pound asthmatic all over again and I panic. I can't breathe."

He wasn't exaggerating. Even if she hadn't been an empath she could have heard him sweating from across the room. She was worried if this continued he'd need to be resuscitated.

"First of all, that 90 pound asthmatic was, by all accounts, as brave as he was kind so I won’t hear you insulting him. He was chosen for the super soldier serum. You don't need to look like Captain America to be worthy of someone’s love." This speech did literally nothing to assuage his terror.

"So what happened, why the sudden fit?"

"Detective Jones invited me back to her apartment and I want to tell her yes and I can't." He wiped back his hair with one hand. For the last 30 seconds of the conversation his eyes had been squeezed shut and so they remained. He was breathing like he had just run a marathon.

"You've come to me."

"Yeah can you wipe my brain or do your Asgardian aphrodisiac ritual or something?"

"Well, wiping brains isn't something I do, and the aphrodisiac ritual isn't something I'm prepared to unleash on the unsuspecting millions of New York."

Steve grimaced again. "Eeengh." Somehow this gutteral sound conveyed a complete idea, the best translation being some combination of “please help” and “make it stop.”

"Steve. Are you asking the wizard to help the lion?"

Steve paused and momentarily opened his eyes because he got that reference.

"You can do that?"

"I know the newspapers call me the love goddess but I'm really just an empath. Your anxiety is playing for me right now like a radio that's turned up way too loud. If you want, I can find the dial and turn it down for you."

"Yes, please, yes do that. Turn it down."

"If I help you, there's going to be some rules."

"Ok, rules, that's fine, I can do rules."

"Number one, take it slow and don't do anything you're uncomfortable with. When the anxiety goes down take a moment to decide if this is what you really want."

"Taking things slow is not my problem but thanks."

"Number two, you have no idea what you're doing. Ask her what she wants, follow directions."

"Good soldier, follow orders, got it."

"Not exactly what I said but sure. Number three. She's going to figure out you haven't done this before. Be honest up front, before anything happens."

"Got it. Go slow, good soldier, tell truth. Anything else?"

She paused a moment. "Don't hurt her."

His panic rose again. "What, there's a chance I could hurt her? I hadn't even thought about that..."

But he began to feel his panic fade. Just as she had said, it was as if someone was adjusting their radio, turning down the overloud treble and restoring its balance against the bass. His breathing slowed and he opened his eyes.

"That's it?" He asked.

"That's it," she smiled.

He sized himself up for a second. "I'm still a little nervous," he remarked, looking around sheepishly.

"I have no intention of depriving you of that. A little nerves give you judgment, you should be a little nervous embarking on something new."

He looked up at her. "Take it slow, ask for directions, tell the truth, don't hurt her. Anything else?"

She punched his arm playfully. "Have fun. Get out of here tiger."

He straightened himself out and walked determinately away.

A voice came from the shadows behind her. "Granting human prayers at parties now love goddess? Or did you just talk him down."

"Oh no, I definitely gave him a heaping dose of Asgardian Xanax. He was way past talking down. I just hope it was the right thing. Were you listening to all of that private conversation?"

He emerged behind her and pressed his face next to hers as he wrapped his arms around her shoulders. "What kind of trickster would I be if I passed up an opportunity like that," he whispered directly into his wife’s ear.

She reached up and put her hand on his shoulder length ebony hair as though she was going to stroke it, but at the last second grabbed it and gave it a good yank until his ear was by her mouth. "That was very bad of you."

He was momentarily incapacitated by the surprise of it but regained his composure enough to say "It was," and after a short pause, "am I to be punished?"

She did not respond, instead releasing herself from his grasp and walking defiantly towards the hallway that led to their quarters. He felt a familiar wave of feeling roll over him as she left. Compliance, submission, and just a hint of fear.

In other words, the evening was about to get a good deal better. He gathered his wits, and left to follow.

Across the room another pair was enjoying similar fortunes. Detective Jones was beating herself up for her impulsive decision when she looked down and saw a large pair of shoes in front of her. She looked up.

Steve Rogers was standing next to her, holding her jacket.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tony was standing behind the bar making himself an elaborate cocktail, Pepper having long before gone to bed. Thor came over and sat in front of him at the bar.

"What do you think of Steve, I think he just left here with a woman. I shouldn't call him right? I can wait. I've waited this long to know any details about him. My curiosity will just slowly kill me for the next two to twenty-four hours depending how this goes."

"Tony I'm pretty sure I just saw what my brother's face looks like when he's hoping his wife is about to beat the hell out of him for fun and I require more ale than you have ever imagined exists. It’s already burning into my brain in between the times I watched him die and Hulk’s green ass."

Tony thought better of either laughing or vomiting, although both occurred to him as appropriate responses, and instead went to the cupboard to retrieve the triple pint stein that only Thor could wield, the Mjolnir of beverage glasses. He used both hands to give the glass to Thor and then extended the corded tap he had installed for exactly this purpose. He watched as Thor gulped half the glass and set the enormous mug back on the bar for a top-up.

"I thought you said your life was infinitely better when your brother was settled with a lover."

"It is. Because I can sleep without worrying that he is bored and hatching a plan that is going to throw the nine realms into utter chaos and I can also get drunk. That does not mean I have any interest in seeing his joyful face as he is dragged to his room by his hair." He took another massive swig, the kind of swig that most people might consider an entire glass.

Tony had no siblings and could not entirely relate but he believed he understood the fundamental premise behind Thor's complaint. He put the finishing touches on his cocktail and gently clinked Thor's glass before enjoying a sip. "What about you Thor, everyone else here seems to be pairing off, I'm an old married man myself. Have you thought of settling down?"

Thor chuckled. "I may tease that Loki is the promiscuous one. But truth be told, over the years he has taken more long-term lovers than not. He wants to feel adored, I usually just want to unwind after battle. I tried to get involved with one human woman who I had nothing in common with. I think I'm better off how I am." He finished the glass. It was indeed an incomprehensible quantity of ale. Tony would have called it an ungodly amount, but that would have been too much irony for Thor in his present state.

"I'd pretend I don't identify with a desire to sleep with a different woman every week and it would be a lie. But in terms of your overall lifespan, you're actually still a young man compared to me. You've got time."

Thor laughed heartily. "I'm only 1500 or so. Loki chose to settle down early. Besides, what need has a king with no kingdom for a queen?"

Tony clinked Thor's unmoving glass again. He had learned the hard way not to seek a mutual cheers and did not want to spend another evening getting glass removed from his palm. "To plenty of time."  
\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Some time later, Loki lay peacefully in his wife's half asleep embrace, idly stroking her hair.

"If I'm honest, I think I like that one even better than when you make me feel powerful, like a king. Is that strange of me?"

"I know honeybear, that's why I do it."

He sidled down into his pillow contentedly. "It is still not my absolute favorite," he noted, kissing her temple.

"Mine either, but not until we're back on our boat."

He sighed. "Maybe we can visit the boat tomorrow and come back."

"Sure," she said sleepily as she attempted to doze.

"I wonder how our Steve is faring across town."

Not too long before, the SHIELD car had dropped off one Captain and one Detective in the middle of Brooklyn. Steve took a moment to enjoy the feeling of being home, although he never took his focus off his companion. He took a moment to appreciate her hair under the streetlight as she rifled through her clutch for the key to her brownstone. Inside, she carefully placed her purse on the small hallway table placed for exactly that purpose and hung her coat on the hook by the door. Steve hung his bomber jacket over it and when he turned around, she was right in front of him, beaming. 

Her apartment suited his tastes. Relatively austere and adorned only with photographs of various family members and their pets, the studio was immaculate. The light colored hardwood floors shined beneath tastefully simple area rugs. The detective was not the type for an overstuffed couch, instead boasting a relatively tight squared off futon style sofa and matching chairs around a rectangular coffee table. Three evenly spaced bar stools fit neatly underneath the overhang off the small island that divided the kitchen from the rest of the apartment. Steve took a moment to appreciate the symmetry and tidiness of the apartment before returning his full attention to his hostess.

As he reached forward and put his hands back on her waist he stopped and remembered his promises. "It's confession time." He looked down into her eyes as she looked up expectantly. She raised an eyebrow and thought to herself that she hates that phrase when things have gotten this far.

He sighed and rubbed one hand through his own hair reflexively. "During the car ride, well, we about tripled the number of times I've been kissed." He chuckled and ran the same hand down her face before slipping his fingers into her hair.

She paused a moment as she considered the implications of what he was telling her. "So I take it that you're telling me...are you sure this isn't moving too fast for you?"

He laughed. "That's a funny thing to say to a guy who's waited a hundred years to cross the threshold after walking a girl home. I just mean I'm going to need some direction is all."

She pulled back just slightly. "How much direction are we talking?"

"Ah, I mean an academic understanding isn't a substitute for experience. I just want you to have a good night and I'm not sure how to accomplish that. I don't mean that I...look I really want to do this if you still do."

She ran her fingers along the tricep of the arm that still had a hand on her waist and looked up into expectant and kind blue eyes that were asking her what she wanted from her night.

That was an easy answer.  
\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Some hours later, Detective Jones laid in her bed musing over the truth inherent in the moniker super soldier. The entirely expected rocky beginnings had been short lived thanks to an incurable eagerness to please, a enlisted's ability to follow directions, and an unending well of artificially enhanced stamina. Not only did she have no idea what time it was, but she would not have placed a wager on which direction was up.

"I didn't hurt you did I?"

She realized she was curled into the fetal position with her eyes closed as she turned to look up at a handsome face looking down at her reflecting grave concern. He had put back on his boxers and was sitting on the edge of the bed.

"No, it's fine. That happens sometimes. It's good, it means I had a good time."

He looked at her with doubt. "Are you sure?"

She rolled over and looked up at him with a smile. "Very. And I was not expecting that, there’s usually a pretty serious learning curve before a guy...gets it right."

He returned the smile and laid down next to her, his hand finding its way to that little spot she showed him last time he had needed a break. She stopped him.

"I like the way you think but I actually need a break too this time. Besides, next is the best part."

He smiled and kissed her on the cheek. "Best part? It gets better than this?"

She laughed. "Next we order takeout, and then stay up talking until we fall asleep or have to go somewhere."

He looked down into her eyes and beamed. "That sounds amazing. Wow, I'm starving."

She directed him to the stash of take-out menus that all New Yorkers over 30 still keep around, even if they always order the food on their apps. He decided to order a truly heroic quantity of Chinese food, pun intended. She didn't mind his assumption that he would pay for the food for a couple of reasons. First, 80% of it was his. More importantly, it meant she didn't have to get dressed. Or up. He had put back on his dress pants and belt to get the door.

Their delivery driver paused a moment. "Are you...Steve Rogers?"

Steve smiled. "I get that a lot." He winked and took two full sacks of food in one hand from the skeptical looking driver before he had time to take out his phone for a photograph. He left not entirely sure what he'd seen. It was 2:30 in the morning after all.

The detective admired Steve's fastidiousness in (again) folding his trousers into a perfect square with his dress shirt and setting them neatly on a dining chair before climbing next to her in the bed with the food and several kitchen towels that he laid out picnic style. As with all lovers' conversations the first night together, it was unlikely that they would remember at all what was discussed. She may not remember why he would have been a police officer if there had not been a war on when he came of age. He may not remember her grandma's dogs in Ohio. They would remember how they were too enamored with each other's company to fall asleep. The feeling that invariably wears off if the relationship continues, some because you have to sleep but more because you achieve a level of comfort that anything not said tonight will wait until tomorrow.

But that first night, before infatuation and novelty are replaced by either the distance of an former acquaintance, or attachment and familiarity, when it's a mystery whether there will be a second, the pair savored the intimacy of pointless pillow talk.

"So, can I ask, I'm not fishing for compliments although you're free to offer them, but I'm curious." He looked at her inquisitively. "Well, I mean, I guess. Why me, why now? Is my question. You've waited all this time but I didn't really get a lot of hesitation from you. Or any actually."

Steve puffed out his cheeks with a sigh. "Huh, well. Okay. I guess she told me I have to tell the truth so here it goes."

"She?"

"Um, this will actually help you with your assignment I guess. Mrs. Odinson."

She raised an eyebrow, hoping she hadn't fallen into some kind of trap, although not necessarily completely regretting it if she had. Maybe the bait was worth the trap, she thought to herself.

"She came and talked to me while she's been staying here. You talked to her, it's intimidating. I've got to say, when an empath sits down and sizes up your innermost self...I felt more naked than I do right now." His companion laughed at that. "I'm a soldier, I'm kind of used to putting my body up for inspection. My heart I guess I hide." He ruffled her hair a little bit and kissed the top of her head.

"There was this woman in the 20th century. Peggy Carter. I only spent a little time getting to know her but we were," He trailed off for a moment looking for his words. "Right on the verge of something, you know? All this potential out in front of us. And when I woke up, she was alive but." Detective Jones didn't want to tell him that she knew this part because of some powerpoint slides. It seemed irreverent to have reduced his life to a series of bullet points.

"Mrs. Odinson helped me understand that Peggy wouldn't have wanted me to close myself off in the hope of realizing potential that was gone. I thought it over and I realized that really, it wasn't just that I was hanging on to a memory. I was hiding. I was terrified. I've fought some of the most dangerous beings face to face, including her husband, without a trace of fear. But get me talking to a woman." He laughed at himself. "I guess anxiety isn't the kind of thing that makes any sense."

She was wondering how any of this lead to a night with her but it didn't seem like the right time to interrupt. 

"So, moving ahead, to tonight." He felt a little bit of the old unease creeping back in but it was an amount he could handle. He squeezed her shoulder gently. "You extended your, uh, invitation." She giggled despite herself. He smiled but then looked at her eyes and stroked her cheek. "I really wanted to accept. But I was too afraid. It was like I was shutting down from the inside. Sometimes the hardest battle you fight is with yourself."

"But you pulled it together, obviously."

"I asked for help. She ratcheted down my fear. Like turning a radio dial. Brought it down to I guess a regular level of fear?"

"What did you have to do?"

"What do you mean?"

"What is she getting out of this, what was your deal?"

He pondered this question for a moment. "Well, I guess she had some conditions. She said I had to make the decision for myself and only do what I was comfortable with, ask you for directions, tell the truth, and uh, not hurt you."

Andrea laughed. “Is that why you kept asking if you had hurt me?”

He shook his head. “That’s just the kind of guy I am. But also maybe yes.”

She thought to herself approvingly and said "Those are quality rules for pretty much any situation. But that's not exactly a bargain for her."

"That's a really cynical question but I guess you have a point. I was too nervous to think about that really, I was just asking for help."

"So you owe an unspecified favor to Loki's wife in exchange for getting into bed with me."

"Well now that sounds awful. Or flattering, is it flattering?"

"Definitely both. I'm not really one to talk, I've asked her for a favor too."

"Well, I'm here to tell you the magic works. At least for now. Although, well."

She turned to face him.

"Yeah?"

"Well. I guess I'm hoping I'm a guy you're thinking about seeing again. I've had the best time, obviously." He blushed a little bit. " I'm sort of new to all this. I'm hoping you're wanting me to take you out dancing or something."

"Steve, you and I talked for hours, and then you came over to my apartment, made love to me four times, and bought me Chinese food. I definitely am going to call you."

He smiled and gave her a deep long kiss before he pulled back. "Four times? I counted three."

"Oh?" As she rolled back over onto his chest he learned the joy of kissing someone while both of you are smiling widely.  
\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

She was not accustomed to sleeping this late, but she wasn't accustomed to staying up until nearly sunrise either. She definitely was not accustomed to waking up to the smell of sausages and coffee. But sure enough, she looked over into her kitchen, and Steve Rogers was cooking. She had probably woken up because he was also whistling. She sat up enough to see what he was making. She didn't have pancake mix and she definitely didn't have sausages.

"Steve, did you go to the store?"

"Yeah, you didn't have much here for breakfast so I just grabbed some stuff." She saw he had also apparently gotten orange juice. This was the time to remind herself that he was not some remnant of a superior era. Another man from his time probably would have woken her up an hour ago and demanded that she make the breakfast. Steve had been as exceptional in his century as he was in this one. And he had been specially chosen by experimental scientists because of his unmatched selflessness. Something she felt she could get used to, as long as she could keep up.

"How long have you been up?"

"Oh, I think I slept a little past oh-seven hundred. You were asleep so I thought I'd get together some breakfast."

She looked at the clock. It was nearly 10. "So, you went around town in last night's suit? How'd you get back in?"

"The girl at the front desk let me back up, she was really nice."

There was no way he had come and gone unrecognized. She remembered she would have a conflict of interest form to fill out when she got to the office. Which, as she considered it, was probably something she would have to do today. Her first meeting with the Odinsons had gone, to put it mildly, poorly. And her next meeting was in just over twenty-four hours. Suddenly she felt tremendously underprepared on a file she had been scrutinizing for nearly a year.

But first things first. There was coffee. And breakfast. And from the smell of it, the secret ingredient was butter. He was setting her plain white ceramic plates and matching mugs next to already poured orange juice. He had found her place mats. It was a nice touch. They shouldn't have been hard to find in her scrupulously neat kitchen. She wished momentarily that he had some basis for comparison so he could truly appreciate that most contemporary New York girls don't have a fully outfitted and tidily organized kitchen in their studio, but stopped herself. He probably didn't view dating as a competitive sport like most New York men. Maybe he would just enjoy getting to know her awhile without comparing her to other girls. At least other living girls. The smile he extended as he pulled out her chair.

Following breakfast, a shower, and a few other forms of stalling, they had to part ways with her promise that she would come find him to go get tacos right after her likely disastrous meeting with Mrs. Odinson, and his promise that he would figure out how to use his phone to send text messages.

Before that he had to use his phone for another purpose he had never previously employed.

"Hey, it's Steve. Can I get a non-urgent extraction from Brooklyn?"

Fortunately, mid-clearance SHIELD agents are highly professional and trained to suppress curiosity. The car ride was quiet. Steve spent his time fiddling with the tiny keyboard on his phone, and barely suppressing a smile.


	4. The Detective

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What do we really know about this woman who appears to have conquered the heart of Steve Rogers? She is a detective who specializes in people with Super Powers. Are her feelings genuine, or does she have a hidden agenda as she is invited back to the Avengers compound?
> 
> Do Mr. and Mrs. Odinson have New York's best interests at heart, or are they playing a long con?

Unfortunately, the Avengers are much less professional.

"He's on his way, act natural." Tony announced to the small group who had assembled in the common room after breakfast. Sam and Bucky were above the voyeurism, perhaps because they expected full details at a later time. Natasha, Tony, Thor, and particularly the other two Odinsons, most certainly weren't. Neither was Agent Hill who fortunately had the convenient excuse of being on duty.

Act natural they did not.

Steve came into an uncharacteristically quiet room. Somehow all of its occupants had their heads buried in reading material. He wasn't about to give them the satisfaction of a response. Besides, he owed a debt to a demigod, and he had remembered how such debts were typically repaid. He went behind the bar and retrieved one of the comparatively larger steins, about a pint and a half, and opened up a bottle of champagne he had purchased on the way over during a requested stop his agent had the decency not to ask about. He poured about half the bottle into the stein. After placing the bottle in the chiller, he carried the glass over along with a little bag of chocolates that he had heard were her favorites. He gave them to Mrs. Odinson, smiled, and without a word left the common room and headed towards the gym to try to recommence his usual routine.

"I can smell that from here, what on earth did you do?" Thor remarked, putting down the newspaper he had definitely not been reading.

"I granted a prayer," she said, smiling as she took an indulgent sip of her champagne.

"Darling I'm very much going to want you to share that with me." Loki said to his bride with a look of severe intensity overcoming his face.

"Over my dead body," her smile faded a little bit as she wrapped her hands possessively around the glass.

"Sister, maybe you're not familiar with the protocol, which is understandable because you're new. When you receive a human offering of that caliber it is customary to share." Thor added, slowly standing up and taking a step towards his in-law. In return, Mrs. Odinson assumed a slightly more defensive posture, curling her body into a little ball on a single couch cushion and now clutching the glass with both hands.

"Hey everyone," Tony said, sensing tension rising in the room for reasons he couldn't quite put together, "why don't we discuss calmly what to do with...Steve's offering."

"Ok. It's mine." The goddess said with unconvincing finality.

"I'm beginning to grow impatient, dearest." Loki said through gritted teeth as he too rose.

Agent Hill attempted to be subtle as she whispered into her comm link. "I may need backup in the common room, I think I'm witnessing the beginning of a godfight and I have no idea why."

Thor heard her despite her best efforts. "Gods can taste human gratitude in food offerings. Read your history books, entire wars have been fought over offerings. And apparently Steve is exceedingly grateful for something because that smells intoxicating." The goddess took another sip and Loki and Thor each took another step towards her.

"Steve gave Mrs. Odinson some food and the other gods really want their own, I think they said offerings, and she's not sharing, what the hell do I do Nick?"

Nick, who was sitting alone in his office for once enjoying a quiet cup of coffee, closed his eyes and put his hand over his face as he said "Go get Steve and bring him back right now."

Agent Hill took of at a dead sprint towards Steve's favorite gym. She found him already fast asleep lying on a weight bench.

"Steve, come with me, that's an order from Nick." She kicked him.

"What?" He said for a moment, but his soldier instincts kicked in as he groggily followed.

"Mrs. Odinson needs a bigger offering from you so she can share."

"....what?" 

As they reached the common room, there was a small catering cart waiting for them. Agent Hill wondered how the world functioned before it had Nick Fury. "Steve, go say thank you to Mrs. Odinson and give her this cart. That's an order soldier," she said in her toughest sergeant voice. As he left she realized she definitely didn't outrank him.

Steve obliged anyway. As he entered the room he saw Loki and Thor standing over Mrs. Odinson defensively crouching in a corner with Tony and Natasha lurking just out of reach, looking at each other trying to decide what to do.

"Hey, I just wanted to say thanks again. And...have some breakfast?"

As soon as the words came out of his mouth, Loki and Thor turned their gaze slowly from the cowering goddess towards first Steve, and then the cart. It was the second most frightened Steve had been in the last 24 hours and for a moment he felt he may know what it was like to be an injured wildebeest who had been spotted by a pack of hungry lions. But instead they both walked over to the cart, helped themselves to generous plates, and went each to separate corners of the room to savor their prizes.

"This is exquisite. Steve, what did she do for you?" Thor said through a mouthful of pastry.

Steve blushed. "Um, well..."

At that point an irritated looking Nick came through the doorway holding a cup of coffee that was probably growing cold. After assessing that Agent Hill had successfully neutralized the situation, he sized up the three apparently starving Asgardians, each hunched over a plate in a distant corner of the room looking like finely dressed feral dogs, a confused and tired looking Steve Rogers standing next to a half empty catering cart, and Natasha Romanov and Tony Stark, each about halfway into their "stand down" postures. 

"Would someone mind telling me what the hell is going on?"

"Sir, apparently Asgardians can taste and smell human gratitude in food and Steve is grateful to Mrs. Odinson for something, I don't know what that is." Agent Hill was now standing at attention. Some light duty today was turning out to be.

"Did either of you kill anybody? Is an alien army headed towards us?"

Mrs. Odinson shook her head. "No sir." Steve replied.

"Then I don't care. Agent Hill please note this in the file under Asgardian traits. Anything else I should know?"

"It's delicious. Thank you Steve." Loki noted, with a small glare at his wife, who was not looking at him to appreciate it.

Nick Fury shook his head in mild disgust, took a sip of his coffee, and headed back to his office. Why Agent Hill requested spending her light duty with these people was beyond his comprehension. 

At this point, Steve had too much adrenaline to get back to sleep, but had realized he was too tired for the gym. He was about to grab a snack, but a stern look from Loki reminded him not to take it from the cart, so instead he walked over to the kitchen, pondering how sacreligious his entire morning now felt. These were just aliens, or he guessed two aliens and a human they had turned into one of them, who could taste gratitude in food and thought of themselves as gods. Ok, he had seen weirder things.

By the time he returned, Loki had retrieved himself another plate of "offering" and was attempting to make amends with his bride who was partially sulking but mostly continuing to enjoy her champagne. Tony and Natasha were in Tony's usual work corner, Tony standing as always and Natasha sitting on a high-topped stool, suspiciously eyeing everyone else in the room, including Steve. Steve decided it would be best if he sat quietly in a corner. He took out his phone and again called up the little keyboard. The learning curve on this may have been better if he had ever been taught to type.

"Loki, let's go to the yard a bit." Thor declared, wiping his mouth after he finished his second plate of food. "I feel incredible and I need to swing a sword."

Loki had other activities in mind now that he was charged up from a particularly rich human offering, but judging by the look on his wife's face, those were going to have to wait. Violence being the second best option available to him, he transformed his casual wear into training gear and headed off after his brother with a glance back at his still defensive spouse. Once they left, she relaxed, opened her chocolates, and went over to sit by Steve.

"Sorry, I wouldn't have done it if I'd known what kind of trouble it would cause."

"You take that back, this is delicious. I can handle them." Given that he was not sure he could handle the two of them in tandem, Steve eyed that remark with suspicion, but said nothing. She smiled warmly at him. "So I take it you were able to make your decision after we talked."

He smiled back, sheepishly, and looked down at his phone. "Yeah." A single syllable that didn't come close to capturing an entire night but was nevertheless sufficient to answer the question, particularly to a being who could read his feelings without asking. The question was more of a courtesy, discerning his good mood did not require the skills of an empath powered by the magic of the Valhalla godplane, as Stephen Strange referred to it.

"You're going to see her again then?" She said, looking at the device in his hands.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If it had not been for the raw adrenaline that hit her every time she considered the look of skepticism she would get from the Asgardian the next day, there would not have been any amount of coffee that could have powered Detective Jones through this particular Sunday afternoon at the office. Seated at her well kept but poor quality wooden desk nestled among its more haphazardly adorned companions, Detective Andrea Jones made new notes on old papers she had reviewed again and again. At least looking at the file reassured her that she already knew it as well as she was likely to.

It was hard to focus on what sorts of questions an assertive empath might have with a brain flooded with memories of the night she took Captain America home, and the accompanying aches. She found herself wandering in her mind to the sound of his voice and the appreciative eyes as he said “wow” which happened more than once. She thought of the contrast between his gentle touches on her face and the ease with which he had hoisted off the ground in the shower. 

She took another sip of her coffee and rubbed her eyes as she turned her attention to the next folder. The detective was intermittently pre-occupied in her reverie and focused on her efforts. She almost didn't notice the shadow appearing behind her.

"The fuck is this?" came a familiarly friendly but brusque voice.

She looked up. She hadn't expected her boss to be in today, the chief of the NYPD PID. He himself bore no resemblance to their statuesque subjects, although perhaps he did 30 years ago when he was a beat cop. Detective Jones looked up at a man whose career was almost as long as her entire life as he stood, hands on hips, holding out the piece of paper she had dropped in his chair an hour before.

"A conflict of interest declaration form."

"It says 'Officer has become connected to Steve Rogers, 7/4/1918, age 100.'"

"So it does." She wasn't sure it was appropriate to smile so fought the urge. The giggle in her throat was out of the question.

"It's a common name but the birthday is pretty revealing."

"His departmental designation is on there too, it should be pretty self explanatory."

"Well it isn't. The narrative section is usually longer than seven words." He looked down at one of his preferred proteges with a mix of professional and paternal disapproval. "How serious a conflict of interest are we talking here detective?"

"I would assume a total screen Chief."

He raised an eyebrow. "You look beat. That SHIELD training really took it out of you?"

"Yes sir. Thanks for the opportunity."

He sighed. "I got your other note. You've gone ahead and pursued your proposal of securing the cooperation of Mrs. Odinson in lending assistance on the Jessica Jones case I see. I assume that's what you're here for instead of out pursuing further ethical conflicts for yourself."

She flushed just a little despite herself. "Yes sir. She's a fairly imposing figure. I only talked to her for a few minutes but the former lawyer shows through. I want to make sure the file is in order for her."

"Are you showing her any of the confidential file? I know she's got low level SHIELD clearance. Somehow."

"I put in that request this morning too, can you?"

"I don't know what happened this week while you were out there doing who knows what with whom, but remember, these people are your subjects first and your friends never. Save the guy on the paper apparently. I'm not convinced that we will get any help from them on our local matters no matter how nicely you ask. But I do know that this 'goddess,'" he did finger quotes, "is a former New Yorker who's married to the guy who orchestrated the Attack. And when they wind up back here, causing trouble, I want more information on her than the file I currently have which is thinner than my dick." He held his fingers close together indicating in his usual self-deprecating manner that this meant the file was exceedingly small. "I don't want to have to wait for the feds to show up next time they start something in our backyard if I can help it."

"I'll write down anything that I learn, but I'm hesitant to press too hard. You haven't met her chief, she's..."

"Detective that's exactly why I need you to learn as much as you can, ok? I'd hate to see you sink this much time into a lead and come back to me empty-handed. I want a full report on Mrs. Loki, ok? Success on the Jessica problem would honestly be icing on the cake." He gave her a firm clap on the shoulder, looked at her another moment, sighed, and walked off to process the paperwork she'd dumped on his desk on a Sunday. He didn't tell her he had only stopped in to pick up a phone cable.

Detective Jones looked mildly dejected but understood his priorities. She wasn't about to tell him that she arguably owed this subject an enormous favor. Or was she? To the extent he wanted a report on what her abilities could accomplish, what motivated her, what she was like in person. Andrea had gotten a lot of intimate information last night. Information entrusted to her by someone who definitely didn't expect it to show up in an NYPD file.

Shit.

She looked down and wished she had more seriously considered her momentary idea to put bourbon in her coffee when she saw her phone light up.

"Hey."  
\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Back at the Avengers compound, Loki and Thor had returned from their exercises and everything was more or less as normal as things get when a bunch of over powered combat veterans are well fed and bored. Tony had put on a mildly obscure movie called "The Labyrinth." Watching it revealed that Loki had spent almost no time in Midgard during the 1970's and 1980's because he clearly had no idea who David Bowie was and deeply regretted that he forewent the opportunity to sleep with him. There was some questioning as to the assertion that the movie was ostensibly intended for children.

Steve looked dismayed at his phone. Mrs. Odinson made an effort to be as subtle as possible as she made her way over to him to see what was the matter.

He sighed. "I thought she had a good time last night but now I guess I'm not so sure."

"Well, she's texting you. That's a good sign. She didn't even wait a day."

"I texted her first. I can't tell if she's trying to brush me off now."

"Can I see?"

Steve hesitated and declined to show his phone, although he struggled slightly to get out his description. "She's complaining that I hurt her. And you made me promise." He looked like he might cry.

"Hurt her? Steve, what's she saying?"

"Nothing specific. She's saying she's sore. And then I think my phone screened out some curse words."

"Phones don't do that."

"Well, there's random punctuation after the word sore that doesn't make any sense."

She had been human for some time before her ascension and was much more familiar with the intricacies of dating text messages than her companions. For this reason she struggled not to laugh at him. "Is it a semi colon followed by a parentheses?"

He looked up at her with fear. "I thought you could read feelings not minds."

"Steve. Turn the phone sideways. She used the punctuation to make a little face."

"A what?"

"It's a face. It looks like someone winking. She's not mad, she's flirting with you."

Steve turned his phone sideways. He saw sideways punctuation and no face. He became increasingly convinced that she was just trying to assuage his concerns with lies. He almost didn't notice her husband come over.

"Bad luck eh Steve? You should have been more careful, these Earth women are highly fragile. Next time."

His wife glared at him. "Don't listen to him Steve, I'm serious. If she's telling you she's sore with a wink that's a compliment."

"Who's sore?" Tony Stark had come over. Steve tried to sink into the couch.

"Steve damaged his Earth woman Tony, we are attempting to console him." Loki was taking the joke too far, which would have been his middle name if he had one.

"That's not damage, that's a job well done Steve. She's already texted you?" Tony was reliving his glory days vicariously.

"Can everybody just take a step back please?" Steve felt his anxiety rising again. "I don't know how I hurt her, I was really careful, I feel bad enough without all of you rubbing it in."

Tony avoided the obvious pun. "Steve-o. Rog. Buddy. A woman who tells you she is sore is complimenting your stamina. I assume you two," Tony made gestures with his hands that were not rude or explicit but communicated his next thoughts, "more than once? Am I right?"

Steve stayed quiet, looking down.

"I'm right, so Steve, that's just going to happen. Think of a tenderizing mallet to a steak..." Steve waved his hand to indicate that Tony needed to stop talking before Tony had the opportunity to demonstrate further hand gestures.

Loki chimed in with barely concealed glee. "I'm not so sure it's a compliment Steve, you probably damaged her permanently. Tell us, how many times did you make love to the nice lady?"

Steve squirmed uncomfortably. Tony decided to be unhelpful.

"He has a point Steve. Maybe we can help if you just tell us. Not looking for all the details, we know you're a gentleman. Just for strictly medical purposes."

Steve thought for a moment as he looked at all the expectant faces around him and uncharacteristically he acquiesced to peer pressure, mumbling towards the floor "I guess four times last night and twice this morning."

Agent Hill had been doing her best to pretend she was not listening to the conversation but completely blew her cover when she dropped her coffee mug to the ground and it shattered into fragments. Tony said nothing and clapped Steve on the back as he went to push the call button for someone to come handle the mess. The goddess simply looked at him with her hand on her chin, wondering again if she had done the right thing playing at wizard of Oz.

"And did you start all those or was it generally her idea?" asked his patroness.

"You told me to follow directions as long as I was comfortable so I was letting her sort of make those decisions."

She sighed. "Ok, sweetie. Remember how earlier we talked a little about being ok with the idea that she may or may not call you to meet up again and just enjoying things one day at a time?"

He sighed back, resigned. "Yeah, I remember."

"I take it all back. I suspect not only is she going to call you, she's struggling mightily to resist the urge to do it right now."

Steve looked up at her. "Really?"

Agent Hill chimed in from where she was crouched behind the sofa trying to wipe up her coffee. "Steve, I'm a lesbian and I'm thinking about calling you."

This was greeted by raucous laughter from nearly everyone in the room except for the joke's object.

"So she's not sore?" He was still confused.

"She definitely is. But you know how you're sore after a good workout and it's the good kind of sore?"

Now she was speaking his language. He returned to his sheepish smile and looked down at the text he still needed to respond to. Loki peered over his shoulder.

"Ask her if a kiss would make it better." He added mischievously. His wife grabbed his hand and led him away back to their usual sofa to resume watching the movie and admonished him to leave the poor man alone, but the damage was done. Not fully grasping any potential dual meaning, Steve took the trickster's advice, and hit send.  
\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Detective Jones was wrapping up her review of the file and was preparing to gather her materials for the meeting and head home to sleep like the dead. She reminded herself that Steve would respond slowly to her text messages because he was probably using one finger to type. As she was switching off the lamp on her desk, her phone lit up.

"Would a kiss make it better?"

Ugh. She melted. She was so pleased with this she disgusted herself. She set her file back down for a second to type her reply. "Stop tempting me, I should sleep tonight I have to be up early tomorrow. Agent picking me up at 8:30."

She gathered up her file and walked to her subway stop. As she waited her phone lit up again.

"Not if you were already here."

Never had she been so pleased at a man being eager to see her again right away. What was the big deal, tomorrow was just one of the more intimidating meetings of her whole career. What's the worst that could happen. But she did pause.

"Are you with them?"

Her train was mostly home by the time the reply came.

"Yeah we're all watching movies."

Hesitation again. She was supposed to be gathering information on these people, but it felt a little two-faced, and she was not supposed to be getting familiar. Still, the opportunity to see him again, paired with the career boost of extra time with her subjects when their guard might be lowered weighed heavily against any guilt she felt at taking advantage of the relationship for career purposes. She could figure out a way to write down her information without betraying anyone's confidences, right? Of course she could. She told herself, as she slipped her files into her overnight bag.

A follow up ding. "You coming here?"

It occurred to her that for her training she had been transported via official SHIELD vehicles. There wasn't exactly a bus route to the Avengers compound just outside the city.

"I want to but how do I get there?"

Before the next text came in, about seven or eight minutes later, there was a knock on her door. A woman in a long professional black dress and sunglasses was waiting.

"Well, nothing weird about this." Detective Jones joked as she answered her door.

The woman waited a moment and asked if Andrea was ready to leave. She nodded and the woman turned and walked to the elevator banks without indicating whether she expected to be followed.

One awkward car ride later, as the vehicle pulled up to the compound, Detective Jones looked out her window to see Steve Rogers standing out by the drive. His hands were in his pockets and he was shifting just slightly from foot to foot, failing both to act like someone who was not trying to act cool and to act like someone actually cool. It was precious.

He greeted her with a short kiss but a long grin and took her backpack and file from her. One of the staff members asked if these would be going to his quarters. He had in all candor not thought ahead that far but detective Jones instinctively responded "yes, please" to which he nodded as though he had known that was the answer all along. The staff member departed with the items.

"I'm not going to lie, I'm happy to see you. Are you sure you want to go in there with those vultures though?" He looked down at her.

"No I'm not but they're your friends right? If we keep this up I'll have to get used to them eventually."

He paused. "They definitely know where I went last night," he remarked and after a pause, "and why."

She smiled. "I would assume so. They weren't born yesterday."

He looked around and said "Yeah, some further from yesterday than others." So far as he could recall, Thor and Loki were more than a millennia and a half old. And still behaved like rowdy children. He realized he was the next oldest unless you subtracted out the ice years. Life was strange.

"Come on," she urged. "Let's get it over with."

Some of the novelty of poking at Steve having worn off, and with adequate distraction, the group did a slightly better job of acting naturally than they had earlier that day. When Andrea and Steve came into the room, Thor, his sister in-law, Tony, Natasha, and Bruce were fixated on the spectacle before them, shifting their attention back and forth between the television and Loki.

Thor didn't look away from the television as he explained "I found this show called Castle Ghosts about haunted castles. We are watching to see which hauntings Loki takes credit for. If it wasn't him, he kind of nods like this," Thor did his best impression of Loki nodding in professional appreciation, "but if it was him, he giggles maniacally."

"It's really unnerving," Bruce added.

"Hey now, maybe I can just appreciate high quality work," Loki protested. Thor gave him a skeptical look. "By me. I can appreciate quality work that was by me." They turned their attention back to the show. The segment they were watching was about a castle in Ireland called Leap castle. When the narrator explained that in this castle, one man killed his brother in the top story chapel during services over a dispute as to which of them should inherit the castle, Loki launched into a high pitched giggle that was truly frightening.

Thor looked aghast. "Stop stop stop, someone pause this." Tony hit pause. "Loki. Tell me you're not responsible for this man murdering his brother."

Loki smiled. "It was a few centuries ago."

"Loki!"

"No, I'm not, why would you think I support fratricide?"

"Because you're laughing like it's the funniest joke you've ever played is why." His brother said now with crossed arms and a grimace. "And because you've stabbed me. Many times."

"No, I didn't HAVE him do it. I came in afterwards to see HOW he did it. And I livened the place up a little too, which you'll observe, if you keep watching." Loki turned as though he was going to watch the show again.

Thor pouted. "I don't like this game anymore."

Loki turned back at him. "Oh please, this is the best one yet. Tony, make it start again." Loki waved his hand at the television. 

Andrea was not sure any of this would contribute to her file. She thought maybe she should instead fall asleep in the crook of Steve's arm, which may happen regardless of whether it was her plan.

"Steve," came the voice of Mrs. Odinson, "can I have more of the champagne you bought?"

"NO!" shouted Bruce, Natasha and Tony in unison, even as Thor and Loki were about to say yes. Detective Jones looked up at her companion who shook his head to indicate it was best not to ask.

"I'll get it," Agent Hill offered as she removed the bottle and poured its remnants into an entirely inappropriate glass for champagne, before casting the cursed bottle forever into a recycling bin. Mrs. Odinson took a sip and made a little face of mild disapproval, but shrugged and kept drinking. Even ordinary champagne was still champagne.

Loki was now sitting up with both feet planted on the ground looking at his brother, sulking slightly. "Thor."

"Loki." Thor still had his arms crossed and was not making eye contact.

"May we please resume the program now?"

Thor was unmoved. "Go ahead. But I can't be held responsible for what I do if I find out..."

"I didn't, it's hilarious, I promise."

It was indeed hilarious if you're them. A woman residing in Leap castle many centuries after the horrible fratricide in the late nineteenth/early 20th century had complained that while she was sitting and writing her ghost novels for a magazine, she was startled by a tiny figure that appeared to be part demon and part goat with a foul stench. The show declared that it was an elemental spirit formed by the horror of the history of the castle. Loki was laughing so hard at the low-budget recreation of the spirit that he was holding his sides and, despite himself, Thor joined in the laughter. Although when Loki asked if anyone wanted to experience the elemental illusion for themselves, everyone declined. He promised to show Thor later to which his brother nodded, an indication that amends had been made.

Loki did feign inattention when the program went on to describe carts upon carts of human skeletons that were removed from the small dungeon beneath the castle in the mid-twentieth century. Fortunately for him, no one seemed to be looking at him so long as he declined to laugh audibly. Except his wife who had grown accustomed to being horrified by her husband's past.

Much of the remainder of the evening was comparatively uneventful. Detective Jones was right in her estimation that she would be incapable of completely resisting temptation once she found herself in Steve's quarters, but she did sleep remarkably soundly thanks to some perfectly turned down blankets in an overall pristine space boasting as little decoration as her own apartment. The warmth of someone who cared for her didn't hurt either.  
\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Detective Jones should not have been surprised by the startling professionalism of the striking goddess in flowing peach colored robes who sat before her, patiently reviewing the summary pages of her large file on their subject, but the juxtaposition of her apparently glamorous existence against her stern business-like manner was nevertheless jarring. After she completed her cursory review, she looked up at the detective meaningfully for a few moments.

"I can see why you are desperate enough to consider questionably ethical divine intervention. You do have a situation on your hands. Your name is Jones too, any relation?"

"Not that I know of, it’s a common name. Questionably ethical?"

"I really only use my abilities upon request or in self defense. I don't tend to go around fiddling with people's emotions for my own amusement."

Detective Jones blushed. "I am hopeful that you can do something. I, uh, well I guess I admire your work?"

Her countenance shifted from lawyer to love goddess as she raised both eyebrows. "So he did tell you. That's good, I told him to be honest with you."

"He told me that too. Although when he told me. I mean, I assume you did something? It wasn't just a really productive counseling session?"

"No. He definitely did not get a placebo if that's what you mean. The real dose."

"So, I mean, is that permanent?"

"Not in my experience, although now that he's gotten past that hurdle I hope his triggers won't be so extreme. I can't exactly meet up with him every time he wants to pursue something that makes him anxious."

"Is it still going, I mean is he still dosed, or?"

"To be honest I think it probably wore off within a few hours. I would be amazed if that weren't the case. And I haven't done anything since."

"So, the Steve I've been getting to know."

"The man whose company you've enjoyed the past two days is 100% Steve Rogers. I can't control someone's mind or will and I wouldn't anyway. Actually you've probably known him better than anyone in a while. He was waging this internal struggle, his anxiety versus the rest of him. He asked me for help with that so he could assert his will over himself."

"I think that makes sense. And you think it's already worn off?"

"I don't see my own signature anywhere."

"Are you sure? At peak power can't you influence people for 5.2 miles around?"

"How oddly specific. I suppose."

Detective Jones allowed her momentum to carry her off for a moment. She felt like she was gathering a good deal of valuable information and didn't think to stop her roll.

"If you had wanted to you could have turned up my desire or his, we would have been like your puppets."

To this, the goddess did not respond. The detective stopped completely and realized she had gone a bit too far. Suddenly she began to feel like she was failing at her task. And then she looked up at the eyes of the woman who was coming to help her, a woman she had decided to interrogate, and began to feel guilty, the way she had the day before when she realized she may have to note intimate details in a police file. 

"Ack. I'm sorry, I got curious. We should get back on topic."

The goddess continued her silence. Detective Jones realized she had betrayed her secret agenda. She started feeling even worse about being two-faced to a woman who was now doing her a second favor for no other reason than generosity. She waited until she could barely stand it and then spilled the beans.

"I...I'm supposed to be getting information about your powers if I can. We don't really know much about you and my boss wants to understand what you're capable of. I promise you that I'm really only interested in seeing if you'll help Jessica but I was ordered to get anything else you offered."

"And this has what to do with Steve Rogers?"

"Nothing!"

"Nothing?"

"I promise, I had no plans to even meet him Saturday night. I got really lucky."

"Did you?"

At this point Andrea was beside herself with guilt. "I promise you I was not using him. I really like him."

And like that, it ceased. She looked up. "Wait, what the hell?"

The goddess did not acknowledge the epithet. "I'm hungry. Do you have a snack?"

"The fuck was that, did you just use your powers on me? I thought you only used them with permission."

"Or defensively. Do you have food in your purse?"

"Maybe some M&M's. Defensively? You were defending yourself from what?"

"That will do fine. You were interrogating me and I was starting to suspect you had used Steve to get to me. If I had enabled that, I would have been very upset. You know he has a pure soul and does not open up to someone easily."

"Yes, I do know. Probably better than you." 

"I doubt that. My snack? It's the least you can do if I'm going to help you with Jessica."

Andrea reluctantly opened her purse and rooted around to find her snack. It didn't take long, her purse was well organized. As she retrieved them the goddess added. "Now, did you stop being yourself just now, or did I just magnify the guilt you already felt about trying to deceive me?"

Detective Jones was about to defend herself and stopped. "I was still me. I did feel guilty already. Like you said, you just brought it forward." She held out the bag she had been looking forward to enjoying.

"I just want one."

Detective Jones paused. "You want one M&M?"

"That's right." She held out her hand. It wasn't quite the weirdest thing Andrea had observed all weekend. Asgardians were strange. Even if they were human. She prepared to comply.

"Wait a minute. Before you give it to me. Are you glad I helped Steve get the courage to go home with you?"

Detective Jones sighed. "Very. Thank you."

The goddess smiled and accepted the single candy. After a moment she said "I will help you. I'll want a week or so to do some more research. Talk to her friends, etc."

"Wow. Really?"

"Of course. She's a New York hero. I'll do what I can. If she'll let me."

"Thanks! You know for a moment I thought this was going really poorly."

Her counterpart didn't laugh.

As they exited the small conference room they had chosen to meet in, they found Loki and Steve waiting outside for them. "You boys got bored without us?" Mrs. Odinson joked. But Steve noticed that Detective Jones looked a little shaken. "Andrea are you ok?"

"I'm fine. It's fine."

He turned his attention to the goddess. "Did you do something to her?"

"I had to defend myself. She started interrogating me. It's fine. She really likes you Steve."

Steve was getting fired up. "What did you do?"

Detective Jones stopped him. "Nothing I didn't deserve. Really, I'm fine, and she's going to help. Can we just go?"

He shot a glance back at the Odinsons as he put his arm around the detective and they walked away together. Over lunch, the Detective confessed to him her secondary (or arguably primary) assignment to learn what she could about the empath's motives and powers. 

"Really though, I actually think she was more worried that I was using you than that I was interrogating her."

Steve gave a grunt. "How kind. How did you get her to trust you?"

"I have no idea, it was really strange. She demanded that I give her an M&M."

Steve looked up. "She asked you for food?"

"She asked me for one M&M and she asked me to thank her for helping you get the courage to come home with me."

Steve smiled. "She trusted you after you gave her the M&M?"

Detective Jones looked at him and said "Why, what does that mean?"

He reached forward and took both her hands into his and kissed the tips of her fingers before looking back into her eyes. "Asgardians can taste human gratitude."

She gasped. "It was a test?"

He nodded. "She must have decided you were really glad." She blushed a little under his warm gaze.

They had not heard what was said of them as they left.  
\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"She interrogated you?" Loki inquired of his bride.

"Not much. She got a little over curious. Nothing I couldn't handle. She is grateful I gifted her Steve."

"Oh? Did you obtain another offering you didn't share. I didn't think you needed an offering to determine someone's emotions."

"Being able to tell someone is feeling grateful doesn't tell me who they're grateful to like an offering can. This one was different. I tasted the gratitude she felt for me. But there was another flavor in there. Less sweet, more savory."

He paused and he looked at her. "You've never tasted it before?"

"I think I got a hint of it when Agent Hill gave me the champagne yesterday but I wasn't sure, I thought it could just have been the lack of gratitude."

"My darling," he said, coming up behind her and putting his hands on her shoulders. "I do believe you have tasted fear." He paused a moment before he leaned in and whispered in her ear, entirely failing to conceal his enthusiasm. "Did you like it?"

She continued to look down the hallway through the doorway that the new couple had exited instead of looking over her shoulder. "I didn't hate it."

He smiled. "It's an acquired taste."

She turned around to look at him. "I still prefer the gratitude."

He laughed. "You and your sweet tooth. Come, you've made me a promise and you're already a day late. Come with me for a night on our boat before we start hopping around New York to work on your little project."

She had made him a promise. The kind she didn't mind keeping. Especially since the emotion he wanted to experience was one that he could use his powers to reflect back on her. Provided they were at least 5.2 miles from civilization.

He was asking her to make him feel loved.  
\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


	5. Private Investigation

 

“Do you have an appointment with Ms. Hogarth?”

 

A handsome young man in a crisp suit (clearly off the rack but still fit perfectly, he just had that kind of body) with short hair greeted her at the top of the market condominium that had been converted into a law office.  In his photographs in the Jones file his hair had been much longer, but she still recognized Malcolm Ducasse, Jessica’s former associate who now worked as an investigator for the Hogarth firm. And apparently doubled as a receptionist on Wednesdays.

 

“I don’t.  Malcolm, isn’t it?” She inquired in a friendly tone.  She did not need to be an empath or to have read the file to discern that Malcolm was a flirt.

 

He smiled.  “Depends who’s asking.”  She didn’t answer. “Obviously I recognize you.  Yes, my name is Malcolm.”

 

“I’m hoping to talk to both of you then.  I’m here on NYPD business.”

 

He raised an eyebrow.  “Really? Why?”

 

“I’ve been asked to provide assistance in the matter of Jessica Jones.”

 

Malcolm continued to look skeptical.  “Jessica does not need anyone’s help to get laid and never has.”

 

The goddess rolled her eyes.  “Why is that all humans think I can do?”

 

“Funny to hear you say ‘humans’ like that.  You were one of us not so long ago,” came a rich female voice from the next room over just before Jeri Hogarth waltzed into the room.  “It’s okay Malcolm we know each other from way back when. The five minutes you practiced law around here.” She walked forward for a short, formal embrace and walked behind her desk, indicating to her guest to take one of the seats in front of it.

 

“More than five minutes.  A couple of years, before I decided I’d rather write.”

 

“It was a shame.  You know I thought you were really talented,” Hogarth said with a smile.

 

“I know you thought I was really cute,” she smiled back at the much older woman.

 

“Can’t blame a girl for trying.  But you’re not here to reminisce,” said Jeri as she resumed her usual businesslike demeanor.

 

“I’m not.  I’m researching my subject and you and Mr. Ducasse here are among the few people who really know her.”

 

Hogarth laughed sardonically.  “Then you’re in trouble. I’m not sure anyone really knows Jessica and that’s by design.”

 

“I understand she has undergone some serious trauma over the last few years,” the empath probed.

 

“If you ask her she’s undergone serious trauma her entire life.  Which is sort of true and sort of not.” Malcolm said, declining to take the seat next to her.  

 

“Yes, she lost her family when she was young?”

 

“And that was very traumatic I’m sure but many people have been through the same and worse.  Sullen and distant is just who Jessica is, trauma or no,” Hogarth said dismissively. “What exactly is it you’re hoping to do for her?”

 

“I’m only at liberty to discuss so much.  But it has gotten worse, hasn’t it? In recent years?  Sullen is one thing but,”

 

“A total psychotic break from reality is another.” Malcolm said.  “She has discarded nearly everyone who cares about her. Mainly me and Trish.”  There was a sadness hidden behind the disdain.

 

“She only ever called me when she needed something anyway.  She and I were hardly friends.” Hogarth said. She paused to wince.  The goddess had known she was in a lot of pain even before Hogarth had come in the room, but she sensed a wave of it getting worse.

 

“I can’t fix it but I can help a little,” she said, sympathetically.

 

“Careful.  I have been promised cures before.”  The threat behind her words was palpable.

 

“No cure.  But I can probably ease your pain long enough for you to get some sleep.”

 

“Don’t make a claim like that and not follow through.” Hogarth let a little bit of her desperation show in her eyes.  “The medication is less and less effective every day.”

 

“Go lie down, I can help.”  Hogarth obliged, heading into her room and climbing under the covers.  She was at the point of illness where feigning reluctance at treatment was not something she was willing to waste time on.  The goddess worked equally quickly, first helping Jeri Hogarth feel number to the pain that had become her near constant companion and then making her feel a little more drowsy.  The exhausted lawyer was out like a light.

 

“As for you,” the goddess said to the shadows.  “You really think hiding works on an empath?”

 

“What have you done to me?” came a woman’s voice from inside Hogarth’s spacious walk in closet.

 

“So rude of you not to get up to greet me.  Are you feeling terribly weak all of a sudden?”

 

“I can barely move my limbs, make it stop.”

 

“No.  You’re still feeling murderous and I can only assume it’s directed at me.  You will be staying put. Can I assume you are Trish?”

 

“At least you didn’t call me Patsy.”

 

“Well, I’m not getting the impression you really want to be my friend.  I’m hoping you do want to talk. But I had also hoped we would meet under different circumstances.”

 

“I don’t know what you’re planning, but the last thing Jessica needs right now is for your psycho husband to slide into her life.  She’s had enough mind control.” Trish sounded like she was struggling against restraints although there were none.

 

“You’ve got me all wrong.  The NYPD asked me to help her.  I’m obliging. Take it as part of my husband’s atonement for the attack.  He was mind controlled too, or hadn’t you heard?”

 

“Save it.  I’m not so naive as to fall for his sob stories.”

 

“Naive, you mean like the agents of SHIELD and the NYPD?  The members of the world council? You’re more savvy than they are?”  The goddess was clearly amused.

 

“In my experience.  Those people hear what they want to hear.”

 

“When did you get your powers?  I don’t remember reading about you.”

 

Trish feigned ignorance.  “What are you talking about?”

 

Mrs. Odinson scoffed.  “Don’t play dumb. We are in the penthouse, at least thirty stories high.  I know Malcolm and Jeri didn’t let you in the front door to go hide in a closet.  You got here a few minutes after I did. Through the window.”

 

“You were spying on me.” Trish retorted.

 

“Not intentionally but your rage was chiming louder than church bells on Sunday as you slipped into this closet.  You’re lucky I found you first. My husband is working to atone but I can’t be held responsible for what he’d do if someone hurt me.”

 

“Then you should stay away from Jessica.” Trish spat.

 

“Not your decision to make.  Lovely to chat with you but I’m afraid you seem to be getting very tired and I must be going.”  As she walked away, Trish’s protest faded into snores as she fell into a deep slumber.

 

“Is she asleep?” Malcolm asked hopefully.

 

“Both of them are.”  Malcolm looked at her very strangely.  “Jeri has been asleep for awhile. Sorry about the mess in the closet.  Thanks for the meeting, it’s been somewhat informative.” Malcolm looked at her with continued suspicion as he crept into the bedroom to see what was in the closet, re-emerging seconds later having seen a passed out Trish Walker.  Not for the first time. Probably not for the last either.

 

“Is Trish going to be okay?” he asked with trepidation in his voice.  She could tell he was growing a little scared.

 

“She’s just asleep.  A trick I picked up from another empath that Thor told me about.  Much easier than fighting. I expect she will wake up well rested in a few hours.  Honestly, you’d think I’d get some gratitude for trying to help your friend. You’ve all greeted me with nothing but hostility and skepticism.”

 

“Have you met your husband?” Malcolm said impertinently.

 

“Yes, I have met my own husband actually, thanks.”

 

“Well I think my doubts are justified.  If you believe it’s okay just to walk around the streets of New York, showing up places unannounced, after he trashed this whole city not even a decade ago.”  Malcolm crossed his arms.

 

“Do you see him here with me?  I know it will take a long time to set things right but,”

 

“Set things right?  You’re damn straight it will.  You think I wasn’t flashing back to the Attack every time I got high?  It’s going to take a century. Until everyone who remembers the Chitauri army is dead.”

 

She softened.  “I’m sorry Malcolm.  I know it’s little consolation that the whole thing was as traumatic for him as it was for you.”

 

“Yeah, he looked like he was having a miserable time, grinning like a scary clown and demanding everyone kneel.  Look, I hope you can help Jessica. But mind control is her biggest fear. Keep him away from her, okay?”

 

“Loud and clear Malcolm.”  She went to leave but she paused.  “You said you thought about the Attack every time you got high?  Is there anything I can…” 

 

He cut her off with a decisive wave of his hand.  “I spent years in therapy to get away from quick fixes for my emotional problems.  I am not in the market for your brand of help.” He felt himself growing agitated and used the breathing techniques he had learned to re-center himself.  “Thanks for helping Jeri.”

 

“You’re welcome.  I hope she wakes up better off after a rest, rather than upset that it didn’t last.  I wish I could make it last longer.”

 

“Rest will be good for her I think.  Should I expect she’ll wake up in worse pain than before?”

 

“Honestly I’m not sure but I don’t think so.  The numbing effect will just kind of wear off.  There’s not a withdrawal so far as I know, if that’s what you’re worried about.”  He nodded because that’s exactly what he was worried about, as she made her exit.

 

“That went well,” came a disembodied velvet voice out of nowhere.

 

“By what possible definition did that go well?”  

 

“Your neutralizing the threat of that powered human who snuck in the window.  I held off on intervening because I suspected you had detected her. And all without a blow being struck, how elegant,” he said with admiration.

 

“It’s a good thing you did.  Those people are not in your fan club.  What a waste of time. I feel like we are no closer than we were.” She said irritated.

 

“On the contrary.  I have some ideas. But I’ll wait until we are back at the compound so people don’t think you’re talking to yourself.  Although it is funny.” He amused himself.

 

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Back at the compound, Steve was finally having a heart to heart with his two best friends about his newly acquired life experiences.

 

“I know it sounds cheesy but one of my favorite things is she sends me little messages throughout the day so I know she’s thinking about me.  Like today she was walking past a little burger place that’s been there for seventy years, and she sent me a picture of it and said we should go there.”  Steve held up his phone so Sam and Bucky could see that there was in fact a picture of a burger place on it. In case they had doubts. They looked at each other smiling.

 

“You know how long I’ve been waiting to see you find someone you like Steve.”  Bucky said to him.

 

“A century?” Steve smiled, looking up and down from his phone waiting for more messages.

 

“Literally.” Bucky said.

 

“You know we could have been sending you little messages too if you’d bothered to learn how to text for us.” Sam said judgingly.

 

“It’s not the same though.  I mean, you guys are my best friends and everything, but I can’t just be a third wheel all the time.  Sitting there, feeling mildly jealous and wishing I had what you two have.”

 

“I know that’s what you want Steve.  But that takes awhile and this is the first girl you’ve ever been serious about.  Just keep your wits about you, okay?” Bucky was the skeptical one about everything except for romance.  Sam was the one with a head on his shoulders for that.

 

Steve pouted a little as he looked back at his phone.  “But losing my wits is fun.”

 

Bucky laughed.  “He’s right though Steve.  You’re head over heels for this girl.  She’s a police officer and you’re a former fugitive.  I know Loki’s wife was confident she’s not using you to get intelligence, but that doesn’t mean she won’t.”

 

Steve shook his head.  “Nah, it’s not like that.  But it’s sweet of you guys to worry about me.”

 

Bucky smiled.  “Old habits die hard.”

 

As Steve walked back to his room he couldn’t help but mull over what his friends had said.  He felt like what he and detective Jones had was the real deal. But now he knew that he would struggle to shake the feeling that she was spying on him.  This from two guys who wished his happiness. They wouldn’t have said anything unless they were really worried.

 

He sighed.  As with all of his personal relationships, they were right that he trusted too quickly.  And how often had he wound up betrayed by those he chose to care for. The only thing that really lent itself to trust was earning it over time.  He looked down at his phone. Incredible how quickly he had gone from never using the thing to being tethered to it. It made the pleasing “ding” sound again.  

 

At least time was something she seemed prepared to give him. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did I say I was going to take a break? Kidding. All these next parts have been written in my head for so long they're just coming out. Can't stop, won't stop. ;)


	6. Unconventional Therapy

“You know when you agreed to sit down and talk to me I was hoping it would involve you talking.”  

 

Jessica’s eyes were all but vacant as she sat at her cheap, empty desk in her cheap, empty apartment, staring across at the empath who had been annoyingly punctual about their appointment.  Nowadays she waited till noon to start drinking but 9:30 was looking more and more appealing.

 

“Usually when people say they want to talk to me they’re hoping I’ll find out if their husband is cheating.  I was looking forward to the challenge.” Jessica’s resentment was palpable.

 

“Sorry to disappoint.”

 

“You came in here wanting instead to discuss my least favorite subject.”  Jessica opened up the drawer with her whiskey in it and gave it a long hard glare.

 

“You’re your own least favorite subject?  You realize that’s not great.”

 

“Sorry.  I guess you’re used to someone who loves talking about himself all day,” came the swift retort.

 

“I’m used to many someones who talk about themselves all day,” was the exasperated reply.

 

At that precise moment, the spitting image of Kilgrave, the man that Jessica had been forced to kill after he spent a year exerting his mind control abilities over her, appeared in the left corner of the room by the door, a few feet behind Jessica’s guest.  

 

Jessica continued to stare blankly at the goddess although she seemed mildly distracted.

 

“Look, I don’t have anywhere to be, I can just sit here and wait for you to talk to me for the next few hours, that’s totally cool,” the empath said frankly.

 

“Aww, look at you, sounding just like my shrink but without all the training.”  Jessica put on a fake smile.

 

“She’s prettier than your shrink too, isn’t she.  Too bad I’m not still alive, would have loved to meet her.”  Kilgrave’s energetic voice hadn’t gotten any less irritating over time.

 

“Shut up.” Jessica muttered.

 

“Sure.”  The empath leaned back and crossed her arms.

 

Jessica put her hands on her forehead.  “Sorry, that was rude.”

 

She shrugged.  “Everything you’ve said to me since I got here was rude.”

 

“Yeah, be nice to the pretty lady, I want her to stay and talk to us.” Kilgrave chimed in, leaning over the empath’s shoulder with a broad, creepy smile.

 

Jessica puffed out her cheeks and exhaled violently through pursed lips.  “Yeah, well, I do that. But you’re wasting your time. I’m not doing so bad as I was.”

 

“That’s the spirit killer, tell her everything’s just dandy.”  Killgrave quipped.

 

“I’m not a killer.” Jessica said, pounding her fist on the table, which left a dent.  “Dammit.” She rubbed over the fresh dent with her thumb.

 

“Hey, no need to get upset, I didn’t say you were.”  The goddess put her hands out somewhat defensively.

 

“No, I did.” Kilgrave chimed in.  “You did kill me.”

 

Jessica was getting frustrated and started fiddling with her hair.

 

“And me.”  Her mother stepped out of another corner of the room.  At that point, Jessica sat up straight with a look of confusion.  She reached into the open drawer and pulled a pen out of the desk that she hurled at the corner where she had seen Kilgrave standing.  It passed straight through him.

 

“Whoa whoa, let’s not throw things.  We’re just talking okay?” 

 

“Sure we are.”  Jessica said just before putting a cigarette in her mouth and lighting it up.

 

“I didn’t think you smoked.”

 

“I don’t.”  Jessica stood up and blew a huge cloud of smoke into the corner of the room revealing a hidden figure standing behind her, leaning against the wall.  

 

“Oooh, you are a good detective,” came a velvety masculine voice, as the illusions of Kilgrave and Jessica’s mother faded from view.

 

Jessica grabbed the bottle from her desk and went and sat in the fourth corner of the room, the only corner not occupied by any illusions or hidden tricksters.   “Even by my standards, today is already really fucked up. What possessed you to bring him here and why did you think that would fucking work? What was the idea, get me to confront all my victims or something?”  She took a long swig.

 

“No one calls us if they want something orthodox.  We thought it was at least worth a try. The department suspected you had extremely vivid hallucinations, which you just confirmed.”

 

“Yeah well.  You were doing a good job of acting like you didn’t even see him.”

 

“So were you.”

 

Jessica took a swig.  “Well, your little scheme didn’t magically fix me.  Is that it? Are you going to go report to the department that I’m full on crazypants?  Lock me in the fridge?”

 

“Why do you insist you’re not a killer.”  Even though she knew he was standing there invisible, it was still unnerving to see Loki materialize in her living room/office as he asked her the question.

 

“Listen, monster, you have no idea what I’ve been through, and then you come in here,” 

 

He cut her off.  “I have no idea? I have no idea what it’s like to grow up adopted, in the shadow of a gorgeous and popular blond?  I have no idea what it’s like to see your parents die while you stand by helplessly? I have no idea what it’s like to wake up from mind control to realize you’ve been made to kill people?  No idea?”

 

She stared at him for a good while after this outburst.  “Well shit.”

 

“Shit indeed.  You think you’re the first person in the universe to endure these hardships.  Typical humans.”

 

“Great.  You’ve now confirmed I’m on the path to full on super villain.”

 

“You insist you’re not a killer.  That’s what’s tearing you apart isn’t it.  Grappling with this question, oh, am I a killer.”  Loki ignored the continuous insistence of humans to call him a super villain.

 

“It’s kind of a big question.”

 

“No it isn’t.  Tell me, have you killed people?”

 

“Have you?” Jessica got more confrontational.

 

He took a couple steps towards her and crouched down to look her square in the eye.  “Many.”

 

She closed the bottle she had been drinking.  “Well, I’m not like you.” 

 

“No one is like me.  But you have killed people.”

 

“A couple.”

 

“So you are a killer.  Definitionally.” 

 

“What the fuck dude.” 

 

“You’re asking the wrong questions.  By definition you are a killer. You’ve killed, you’re a killer.  The real question is, was it wrong? Would you take it back? Didn’t you do what you had to?”

 

She stared at him aghast.  “Of course I would take back killing Luke Cage’s wife.”

 

“That doesn’t count.  That one is on Kilgrave’s body count.” He shook his head and waved his hand dismissively.  “Would you kill Kilgrave again, given the chance?”

 

“Take his shape and find out.  You can live through having your neck snapped.”

 

“Yes, but I don’t terribly enjoy it.”  Loki rubbed at his neck slightly worried.  “And your mother, the monster that she became?”  Jessica stayed silent. “Stop asking yourself this existential question.  Who am I, am I a killer. Ask instead, ought I to have done differently. Wouldn’t you kill Kilgrave again if it came up?”

 

“Honestly I should have killed him sooner.”  Jessica dropped her head as she said it.

 

“Now we are getting somewhere.”

 

His wife watched this entire exchange increasingly impressed.  She knew he had read the file in anticipation of creating his illusions (he was prepared to do a whole lot more if they had taken) but she had no idea the depth of his understanding of their subject.  She was continuously reminded not to underestimate him.

 

At that moment, a man walked in the door without knocking.  Muscular and unshaved with smooth, short, jet black hair, he got a startled look in his eyes when he saw Jessica seated on the floor with the god of tricks looming over her.

 

“Jessica what the hell is going on here.” He said with no small amount of alarm.

 

“It’s fine Oscar, this is just a very non-traditional counseling session.  These are gods.” She said, pointing to each of them in turn.

 

“These are an alien and a powered human, there’s only one God.  What are you doing to her?”

 

“The NYPD asked us to talk to Jessica.  We are doing a terrific job. And you are?” Mrs, Odinson asked, still exasperated.  

 

“Oscar Arocho, her boyfriend.”

 

“Are we calling it that?”  Jessica asked, starting to feel the whiskey.

 

“Why didn’t you warn me people like this were coming?”

 

“She just called this morning, I didn’t think she’d bring the freak.”  Jessica waved her now nearly empty bottle in Loki’s direction.

 

“Hey everyone,” Loki stood up and clapped his hands together decisively, “I have a brilliant idea.  I don’t like being in this city any more than it likes me being here and I feel like we were making some real progress.  Why don’t the two of you come with us on our boat for a few days, get away from it all, enjoy some fresh air, and we can continue our conversation.”

 

“Really?”  came the incredulous response from all three individuals in the room almost simultaneously.

 

“Really.  Come on, it’ll be fun, what do you think?”

 

“I think you’re going to try to murder me on a boat and throw my body in the ocean.”  Jessica said with no trace of irony.

 

“I can assure you dear, if I wanted to murder you, you would already be dead.” Loki said with a broad grin.

 

“Fair point.  I could use a cruise.  Is your food any good?”

 

“Jessica you can’t be serious.”

 

“I don’t know, free cruise.  Anyway, Vido is visiting his mom, this is our chance.  We’ve been saying we wanted a weekend away.”

 

“Nothing is free Jessica, especially not from people like this.”

 

“I am being paid in atonement for my prior misdeeds.  We already struck our bargain with the good people of the NYPD.  You’re just the lucky beneficiary.” Loki smiled, his hand on his heart to show his earnesty.

 

“I’m sold.  I’ll pack.” Jessica stood up and got another bottle of whiskey out of the drawer and set it down on the desk with a clanging sound.  “Ok, that’s done. Oscar what are you bringing?”

 

“Some clothes and a toothbrush, as are you.  I can’t believe we are considering this.” Oscar shook his head.  But his apparent acquiescence betrayed his thoughts. He too was desperate for anything that might help Jessica come to grips with reality.

 

“You won’t regret it.  Meet us at the docks in a couple of hours to set sail?”

 

“Ahoy.”  Jessica said, saluting.  

 

When they got into the elevator, Loki’s bride turned to him with a stern look.  “No.”

 

“No what darling?”

 

“No.”

 

“Oh come on, please?”

 

“We are here to help Jessica recover from trauma, not to make passes at her dishy boyfriend.”

 

“Did you even see him?  That human is a work of art.”  Loki said defensively.

 

“I have eyes.  They are just our subjects for this assignment.  No funny business on the boat.”

 

“But funny business is my middle name.”  He caved under her watchful eyes. “Fine.  Maybe we will just become friends during this trip and then some day,”

 

“One step at a time there cowboy.  Stick to the project okay?”

 

“Fine.  And I’m not a cowboy.  They have fleas. I’m something much more dignified.”

 

“Casanova then.”

 

“Better.”  He smiled and she rolled her eyes as they disguised themselves to look like tourists.

 

“We are going to need some more food for the boat.”

 

“And drinks,” he smirked.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

They were already a few drinks in by the time they dropped anchor significantly south of the coast of New York where the nights were warmer and the passersby scarcer.  Oscar, who still seemed a little uneasy but had relaxed slightly after a video chat with Vido, was pacing himself. Jessica was not.

 

“Loki where did you learn to sail a boat?” she asked.

 

“A ship is a ship.  An aircraft, a boat, a starship.  Once you’ve driven enough of them they all start to look the same.  Energize, navigate, and steer. Sometimes there’s bells and whistles like weapons or fireworks.  This boat can turn invisible.”

 

“Really?  Do it do it do it.”  Jessica was just the right amount of drunk.

 

“Just kidding.  Only I can do that.  Anyway, the three basic functions to move the craft are always the most prominent, and then whatever the culture values most is next.  Shuri obviously values communications.”

 

“You really just get on a ship and look for the biggest, shiniest buttons?” Oscar asked.

 

“I would say there’s more to it than that.  But I would only say that because I lie.”

 

“Shuri also gave us a basic once over of the ship before we sailed off,” his wife chimed in.  “She was really proud of her creation.”

 

“Yes, and I think she would have kept going much longer if I hadn’t powered it up in front of her.”  Loki smiled.

 

As the two of them started talking about their prize wedding gift, Jessica walked over to the edge of the boat and looked out over the vastness of the open water.  In her lifetime she had only rarely left New York City. She tried to remember if this was the furthest she had ever been, but the champagne cocktails that were mostly gin had made her memory the right amount of fuzzy.

 

“This is the best therapy session I’ve ever had.” Jessica turned around and declared to the gathered company.  “You should tell the NYPD to treat me with regular booze cruises.”

“It would probably be less expensive than the other courses of therapy they’ve tried for you.” Oscar remarked.  

 

“This is where you’re not like me at all.” Loki said, having shored up the controls on the ship.  He wandered over to pour himself another drink. “Look how hard these people are working for you.”

 

“People work pretty hard for you pal.  Or have you forgotten your global pardon.” Jessica quipped.

 

“People tolerate me begrudgingly due to a combination of my skills and my obnoxious tendency not to die or stay in prison.”  He smiled. “You on the other hand. These people value you. They’re not just putting up with you, they care.”

 

“Thor cares about you.  And her, obviously.” Jessica waved her beverage at his wife who held up her own mimicking a ‘cheers.’

 

“And that, young lady, is the complete list of living people.  It doesn’t get much longer if you count the dead. But you on the other hand.  There’s this fantastic creature right here,” he gestured towards Oscar, “Malcolm, Detective Jones, even that lawyer, Madame Hogarth.”  Jessica chuckled at the moniker that fit Jeri perfectly. “All genuinely care for you, just ask my wife she can tell you.”

 

Jessica sighed.  “You forgot Trish.”

 

“No, you did,” the empath said.

 

“That’s harsh.” Jessica went to refresh her buzz that they were killing.

 

“Trish was ready to murder me for even trying to investigate you.  The passionate rage on your behalf I felt from a building away. Whatever happened between you two?”  The goddess asked sympathetically.

 

“It doesn’t matter.”  Jessica shook her head.

 

“It obviously matters a lot.  To both of you.” The empath observed.

 

“The moment you realized that your hallucinations were my illusions.  I didn’t make a mistake.” Loki went and sat down across from her. “Did I?”  Jessica stayed silent. “My information was bad, was it not?” Loki looked at her.

 

“Sounds like a mistake to me.”  Jessica lamented.

 

“You found a difference between what was in the file and what was in your head, didn’t you.”

 

“Stop.” Jessica said.

 

“I’m not here to spy for the police, we are here to help you cope with what you’ve been through.  And we can’t do that if we don’t know what that is.” Loki pressed.

 

“She told you to stop demon.” Oscar moved like he was about to stand up.

 

Loki held up both hands as though a gun was pointed at him.  “Easy there good sir knight. I mean the fair lady no harm.”

 

“Mockery, what else did I expect.” Oscar was still perturbed.

 

“Can y’all stop?” Jessica asked.

 

“Who knows what you expected.  I expected some gratitude but here we are.”  Loki didn’t look up from pouring his drink.

 

“Boys,” the empath scolded.

 

“Gratitude?  For the permanent scars your invasion left on my city, and your ‘efforts’ to ‘rehabilitate’ my girlfriend by antagonizing her about what she’s been through?  Yeah, thanks a lot scumbag.”

 

“Oscar, stop.”  Jessica clenched her fists.

 

“Funny choice of girlfriend if you think people can’t be redeemed for what they did while they were mind controlled,” Loki snarled.

 

“TRISH KILLED MY MOM OKAY?”

 

Everyone went silent as Jessica threw her empty glass and it shattered on the deck of the boat.  

 

“And the worst part is I should have done it.  I had already killed three people. I failed and because of it Trish became a killer too.  Don’t you understand? She can’t come back from that. Once you’ve killed someone, that’s it.  You’re a killer now, just like he said. And now she is too.”

 

“Jessica,” the goddess said after some time had passed, “you aren’t responsible for Trish’s choices.”

 

“I know, but I put her in that situation.  She killed my mom to save me.”

 

“Do you think she would change it if she could?”

 

“No, she wouldn’t.  And that’s the worst part.  She’s a killer without remorse.”

 

“That’s not true.  She’s brimming with remorse.  It’s why she’s so angry on your behalf.  Trust me, I felt it on her. Now I understand why.”

 

“Jessica, when I said killing makes you a killer, I didn’t mean the world is divided into killers and non-killers.  A kill doesn’t send you through a portal into the dark dimension. You need a different tool for that,” he trailed off for a moment.  “The point is, it’s hardly that simple. You said you would kill Kilgrave again given the chance, yes? Sooner? And your mother needed to die as well didn’t she.  She killed a lot of people, unjustified, and wasn’t going to stop.” 

 

“You are really not someone I should listen to about moral gray areas.”

 

“I am exactly who you should listen to about moral gray areas.  Because everything you’ve described to me and everything in your file, you did not for one moment act selfishly.  You tore yourself apart protecting everyone else and you’re still doing it as though the dead will benefit from your non-stop self-flagellation.  Well, they don’t and neither do you.” Loki grew earnest.

 

“You’re talking like someone who knows something about regret.” Jessica said.

 

“You’re damn right I am.”

 

“I thought you were under mind controlled when you committed your crimes.”

 

“Young lady you have no idea what crimes I’m responsible for over many centuries.”

 

“And you regret them all?”

 

“No.  Just one.”

 

“Mind sharing with the class?”  Jessica had sat back down, kicking away the glass from her spot.

 

“Unlike yours, my mother did not deserve to die.  I failed to protect her. That’s all you need to know.”  

 

“Jessica,” the empath said gravely, “you said you killed three people.”  Jessica was sullen. “If your mother wasn’t the third…”

 

“You think I didn’t do anything selfish.  Well, that’s not true.”

 

“The NYPD doesn’t know about this other person do they.”  Jessica shook her head and started to tear up.

 

“Jessica, you didn’t say anything to me about this.” Oscar said in disbelief.

 

“How could I tell you I’m a murderer?” Jessica said, wiping her tears.

 

“Slow down there.  That doesn’t sound like you.” Oscar said.  She brushed off his attempts to console her.

 

“The person you killed, a good person?” Loki asked.

 

“Ha.  No. He was a horrible person.”  Jessica said bitterly.

 

“How bad?”  Oscar asked.

 

“He was a corrupt prison guard.”

 

“Oh, well that settles it.  Well done.” Loki said joyfully as though that concluded the conversation.  He acted somber again after a stern look from his beloved. Jessica finally relented and told them about how she broke into the home of the guard who was mistreating her mother and discovered his trophies from inmates he had killed.  When he had discovered her, he tried to kill her and died in the ensuing scuffle. She staged it to look like a suicide.

 

“You did the world a service, stop sulking.”  Loki was losing patience with empathy. It had been a long night.

 

“Loki don’t be so reductionist.  He is right though, however irreverently he says it.  I remember that story, that guy was a monster.” His wife chimed in.

 

“It wasn’t killing him that tore me apart.  It was deliberate and cold way I staged the crime scene.  Even as I did it I couldn’t believe myself. How can I be a person who breaks into a man’s home, kills him, and cleans up with a big sponge like he was a soiled dish?  Because I am that person.” During her story someone had the decency to serve her another beverage which was now almost gone.

 

“But you didn’t do it because you thought what you did was wrong.  He attacked you, and he was a monster who killed for pleasure. You did it because you knew the system was rigged in his favor if anyone ever found out.  That’s how he got away with his crimes to begin with. He found power and he seized it.” The goddess ignored the judgmental looks from her husband who sensed she was about to go into class politics again.

 

“Jessica, look at me.”  Oscar picked up her chin to look into her eyes.  “You are still the hero Vido thinks you are. You got the bad guy.  Okay? And you’re shouldering the burden of knowing the world wouldn’t understand.  But you don’t have to shoulder it alone.” He pulled her head onto his own shoulder and patted her hair as she cried.  

 

After another long silence, Loki’s beloved decided she ought to go for a swim to leave Oscar and Jessica alone for a bit.  “You coming?” Loki nodded at her. Her clothes began to vanish magically off her skin as she descended the ladder into the water.  

 

“You are welcome to join us if you want,” Loki said, looking at them as he turned around to climb down the ladder himself.

 

“I don’t think I should be down there ogling your wife, but thanks for the offer.” Oscar said jokingly as he continued to cradle Jessica who was dozing off.

 

“Your loss.  She’s famously beautiful.” Loki winked.  His own clothes disappeared as he leapt into the water behind her.  

 

Oscar raised an eyebrow not sure if he was being mocked or flirted with, but he didn’t pay that thought mind for very long.  His attention turned to the strange reality that this unorthodox consultation, as loathe as he was to admit it, had paid off.  Even with flood lights beaming from below the boat, the stars out on the water were stunning compared to what he could see in the city.  He carried his beleaguered heroine to one of the large hammocks that had been set up on the deck, pulled a thick wool blanket over them both, and fell asleep listening to the sounds of splashing and laughter below.


	7. Making Progress

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loki and his bride make progress with Jessica Jones and her boyfriend, Steve Rogers makes progress with himself, but across the galaxy, someone else is making progress towards Midgard.

“The problem was that I needed to get back inside the castle before they figured out that the would-be usurper and the traveling entertainer were both me.  Fortunately I had spoken to a snake earlier in the day who told me that there was a secret entrance through the succulent garden, but I would have to be careful navigating around the spiny purple cacti.”

 

“Wait, you spoke to a snake?” Jessica said in between sips of her mimosa.  The morning air, even this far south, was crisp and cool over the water and Jessica was sitting on her hammock with her blanket wrapped around her.  The chill was not going to stop her from enjoying a cold beverage, especially when it was free.

 

“Yes.  It’s a long thin creature that moves along the ground.  Any more interruptions?” Loki had frozen the illusion he was casting as part of his story to pause for the question.

 

“I know what a snake is, you can talk to snakes?” Jessica said.

 

“Of course I can.  I can be a snake. Out of this entire story about me being four people in a castle on a planet with purple cacti, this is what catches your notice?”

 

“I knew it.  He’s a Slytherin.” Jessica declared, holding up her glass in triumph.

 

Loki looked confused.  “I only slither when I am a snake.  I’m not slithering now.”

 

“I’ll explain later and yes, he is.” The goddess chimed in because she understood that reference.  “Oh fuck...I always thought of myself as a Ravenclaw. But now that I’m an empath do I have to be a Hufflepuff?”

 

“Something is wrong with the translation of these terms because the words you’re saying carry a great deal of meaning to you and it’s getting jumbled.” Loki complained.

 

“Translation?” Oscar asked.

 

“Asgardian gods can understand all spoken language but using proper nouns as adjectives sometimes creates confusion.” his wife summarized.

 

“You are not a Hufflepuff.” Jessica assured her.  “You are not that nice.”

 

“That’s a relief.  Maybe I’m a Ravenpuff.”

 

“Darling can you stop, or are you really saying you’re a book bird cuddle badger which is approximately what just sounded in my head?”

 

“I mean, that’s about what I was saying,” she assured him as Jessica giggled.  “Don’t worry, I’ll give you some books later.”

 

“I can skip a book about a cuddle badger.” Loki assured her.

 

“No, it’s about young sorcerers at sorcery school.  You’d like it.” Loki tilted his head to the side to indicate that this premise did hold more interest for him than a book about an affectionate badger.

 

“Please don’t give him ideas for new spells though, he will want to be Voldemort.” Jessica warned.

 

“There is no way a human has thought of spells that I haven’t.” Loki looked perturbed at the very idea.

 

“He won’t want to be Voldemort.  He’s not a pure blood. He’ll identify with the adopted kid who had to live in a closet until he found out he had magic powers, even though his ‘closet’ was ‘one of the finest palaces in the known universe.’”  Loki understood that humans, and his wife, sometimes used their fingers like quotation marks to emphasize when they were being sarcastic, but did not always understand why.

 

Their conversation about fictional wizards and memories of talking to sneaky snakes was interrupted by a loud whoosh and a violent sea spray.  An enormous whale was coming up for air only a few hundred yards away from the boat. Jessica and Oscar ran over to the side to gawk at it.

 

“It’s so close!  Are you guys seeing this?”

 

“Sure.  Darling is it Gungnir the Magnificent?”

 

“No honeybear it’s Chucky.”

 

“Oh.  Hello Chucky.”

 

“You’ve named these whales?”

 

“Yes, guess which of us named which one.” Loki said entirely deadpan.

 

“When have you seen them before?” Oscar asked.

 

“They sort of follow the boat around,” the goddess remarked casually.

 

The humans looked at them confused until Jessica put together the context clues and crumpled down on the deck laughing.

 

“Whales get lucky under your boat.”  She nearly spilled her drink she was laughing so hard.

 

“And as a consequence, we also have whale tracking scientists who try to stay about ten miles back from us.  Although I’m sure they have made an agreement with SHIELD to report our movements back to them as well. They seem better and better funded.” Loki explained.  “The irony. We’ve foiled every other method they have of tracking us but the whales sing to each other that our boat is coming through, and then they just follow the whales.”

 

“Don’t you get it?” Jessica said, still trying to contain herself.  “You’re saving the whales. You hippies.” Loki’s wife assured her husband she would explain the reference later and added the old Star Trek movies to the list of what he needed catching up on.

 

“I named Chucky, Gungnir is not a pet’s name.” Loki said, disappointed no one had asked him.

 

Jessica and the goddess climbed up to the top of the boat together to get a better look at the whales.  Oscar allowed some silence to pass while Loki seemed to not pay attention to him before speaking up.

 

“Joking about whales aside, I’m becoming partially convinced of your reform story.  I have never heard Jessica laugh like this and it makes me very happy.”

 

Loki smiled subtly to himself.  “I may act like I don’t care about the fate of Midgard, but that’s just a defense mechanism.  Deep in my heart,” he put his hand on his heart in his usual gesture to indicate his sincerity as he took a step towards the human, “I only want what’s best for humanity.”  Oscar raised his glass to clink “cheers” and went to join the women and their whale watching.

 

They docked their boat at a point well north of the city that was en route to their SHIELD rendezvous for transportation back to the Avengers compound and home in the city.  After they all got off the boat and embraced to prepare to go their separate ways, Loki said to no one in particular “giving up the hit woman business to go back into reporting then?”

 

“Seriously, I thought I made it clear you can’t hide from us,” his wife echoed.  The two humans looked around confused until their old friend Trish emerged from her hiding place in the trees.

 

“Too late, I already got my pictures.  I’m going to let the world know what you’re up to.”

 

“Do enlighten me as to what that is?” Loki asked her as he reached behind him and took his wife by the hand.

 

“You’re recruiting powered people like Jessica as your army for your next attack, obviously.  Why else would you be showing such interest in her.”

 

Jessica shook her head and went up to Trish and gave her a big and unexpected hug.  Trish was momentarily afraid but then acquiesced to the hug from her friend. “I’m so sorry I pushed you away Trish.  It was my fault you had to kill my mother. I should have done it.” 

 

Trish looked at her shocked.  “Jessica, I would do anything to protect you.  You know that. She wasn’t your job any more than she was mine.  I was just thinking of you.”

 

Loki’s wife looked at the pair and nodded to Oscar.  “I think this is where we go. Thanks for your service to our army.”  Trish glared at her and she laughed. 

 

Oscar chimed in.  “Don’t worry Trish, they don’t need Jessica.  They have whales.” Jessica pulled out of her emotional moment to laugh heartily at this joke while Trish continued to look confused.

 

“Too bad about your camera,” Loki quipped as he and his bride disappeared down the path.  Trish stepped back from her friend and opened up her photographs, only to realize that all of her photographs of the boat were entirely out of focus.  They looked like photographic proof of the existence of bigfoot only slightly less compelling. 

 

“Fuck!” Trish said, but the gods were already out of sight.  

 

Jessica gave her another hug.  “Let’s go talk.”

 

Further up the path, Loki was looking smug.  “I think I made some real progress this weekend.”

 

“I’ve got to hand it to you, I was surprised.  It seems like your experiences really struck a chord with Jessica.  I guess she thinks if you’re able to seek redemption she certainly should be.”  She raised an eyebrow at his continued grin and then, after an epiphany, rolled her eyes.  “But that’s not what you meant is it.”

 

“I got as far as revealing my soft heart beneath a steel exterior.  He’ll come round.” He put his hand on his heart again to show her how effective the gesture was.

 

She sighed.  “Sure he will honeybear.  Never give up hope. Until then let’s go visit your brother.  And check on the data SHIELD collected from this trip.”

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Thor greeted them eagerly when they arrived back at the compound having been away for a few days.  Steve was around less and less and he was no longer allowed to fight the ironsuits because he broke them.  “I’m so bored throwing things in the air and catching them, please please come to the training yard with me brother.  Please please please please,” 

 

“I haven’t even gotten inside yet.” Loki complained to him.

 

“So what?  You don’t have any bags to put away.  Come stretch your legs out now that you’re back on land.  Come on, come on, come on.” Thor had been bored. He only let his brother see him get this punchy, now that he felt obligated to behave like a kingly god for everyone else. 

 

“I don’t think I’m going to be rid of him until I acquiesce.” Loki turned to his bride apologetically.

 

“That’s fine, I wanted to go into the city for a run anyway.”

 

“I’ll come, how far were you thinking?” came a friendly voice from the doorway to the compound.  The three Asgardians turned and looked at a smiling Steve Rogers who was already in his running gear.

 

“I don’t know, a quick twenty miles or so around Manhatten, maybe across the Brooklyn bridge and back?” she said to him casually as her own clothes transformed into athletic gear.  She still insisted on the standard athletic gear of Midgard, stubbornly refusing to adopt leather armor for her exercises.

 

“Shouldn’t take long,” Steve said, sticking his hand out for a SHIELD car to take them into town.  “What do you think, an hour and a half?”

 

“Sure, an easy conversational pace should be fine,” she answered nonchalantly.

 

The driver let them off in Central Park as that made for an easy rendezvous point of return for them.  It was a beautiful fall day and many people were out enjoying the crisp park air. New Yorkers were fortunately accustomed to seeing famous and notorious people out for a run in the park and largely left them alone.  Besides, they were way too fast for anyone to have a chance to approach them. They were not racing, but neither was going to say the pace was too fast as they approached a two and a half minute mile speed, passing bicycles in their wake as they made their way towards the water to run around the island’s perimeter.

 

Still, at this pace they could easily maintain conversation.

 

“I’m trying real hard to let myself enjoy getting close to someone, but the better it gets the more nervous I get about what I’ve got to lose, and the less I trust that she doesn’t have an agenda.  I wish I could just let myself be happy but at the same time, I have to have my guard up right? Because of who I am?”

 

She nodded.  “I get that. Being your girlfriend gets someone access to the Avengers Compound.  You can’t pretend like that’s not valuable, but you also should get to just be a man sometimes.  Having powers makes things...complicated.”

 

He laughed.  “You would know I guess.”

 

“What, having to live on a boat in near seclusion for the first few months after my marriage?”

 

“Not completely, you did get a lot of nice invitations to various countries.”

 

“Sometimes to help genuinely suffering would-be parents and sometimes to advance xenophobia by promoting ‘homegrown’ population growth.  Making myself real popular telling different world leaders which one I think they’re after.”

 

“Gotta call it like you see it.  Real Americans don’t support racism.”

 

“Thanks Captain catchphrase.  They weren’t Americans anyway.”

 

“No, but you are.”

 

“I was.  No idea what I’m a citizen of now.”

 

“Hey, once an American, always an American.  Same thing with New York.” He smiled and kicked up his speed towards Battery Park.

 

And was promptly knocked off his feet, leaping out of the way of a large jagged black spear hurtling in his direction.


	8. Hela

 

“Well, look at you, what a new god I’m seeing here.”  A frightening face had appeared surrounded by a cloud of black smoke in the sky over Battery Park.  The humans enjoying the fall day scattered in every direction to get away or cowered behind benches and concrete pylons.  As in every modern day catastrophe, at least a few couldn’t resist the urge to record everything with their phones, holding them out with their fingertips even as they hid every other part of their bodies.

 

“Lady I don’t know who you are but I’m going to have to ask you not to hover ominously over my city.” Captain America said defiantly, taking over for the more timid Steve Rogers in a crisis as usual.

 

The face, a frighteningly pale woman with black shadows all around her eyes, sniffed the air as she sized up the Captain.  “No, no, this isn’t right. You’re not the god I’m looking for at all. You’re just,” she sniffed the air some more, “a juiced up human.”  The image circled around, hovering ten feet off the ground. “Move over, who are you hiding?”

 

Ever brave and sometimes foolhardy Captain America kept positioning himself in front of his exercise buddy.  “Answer my questions and maybe I will. Who are you and why are you floating over my park?”

 

“Ew, is that her behind you?  She doesn’t look like any kind of fighter.  How on Earth did you ascend to godhood little thing?”

 

The goddess peered around her protector.  “Sleep with the wrong people and you can get into all kinds of trouble I guess.”

 

The face laughed and broke into a terrible grin.  “A joker. That must mean you were made by the scrawny one.”

 

“Neither of them is very scrawny so I’m going to pretend I don’t know who you mean.  You must be Hela. Funny, I thought you were dead.”

 

“Turns out I’m full of surprises.  Shame about your ascension, I fear your godhood is going to be rather short lived.  You see, I have a dispute to resolve with my brothers.”

 

“Get in line.  But don’t worry, I can resolve disputes, come here and I’ll give you my card.”

 

“With pleasure.  I suggest you prepare for my arrival.  And tell your pet to calm down will you, I’m not even there.  But I am on my way. Lovely to meet you little sister, kill you later.”  The apparition vanished and the regular cool day returned. The empath looked over at her running buddy who put down the bench he had ripped out of the concrete to throw at the spectre.  

 

“We should call for pickup and get back to the compound.” He said solemnly.

 

“Won’t it be faster if we just run to the rendezvous point?” she suggested.

 

“If you can keep up,” he remarked.  As he did, she took off like a shot towards Central Park.  She was right. With adrenaline on their side, they ran faster than the cars.  He about kept up. 

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

“We destroyed our home world to defeat Hela, how is she back?” Thor shouted, before he punched the ground in anger.

 

“Brother, you survived the full power of a dying star and an infinity stone being ground into the side of your head.  Is it such a surprise your sister could survive the explosion of a planet?” Loki said, holding the bridge of his nose as if deep in thought.  His wife, more shaken than she had let on at the time, sat partially curled up on the ground beside him.

 

“So let me get this straight.  Your big sister Hela, the goddess of death, is currently flying through space towards Earth to get revenge on you two for releasing a demon of fire that destroyed Asgard?”  Nick Fury was having a bad day.

 

“It’s even worse than it sounds.” Thor said. 

 

“How?  How is it worse than it sounds?  Because it sounds like the worst possible thing.” Nick said.

 

“Well, I imagine that once she’s here she will want to be queen of Earth and she will brutally murder anyone who stands in her way.  She mowed down my finest warriors in seconds without even letting them put up a fight.”

 

“You mean like Sif?  I’ve seen Sif, she is formidable.”

 

“I sadly do not know the whereabouts of Lady Sif.  But yes, the troops under her command, my companions from my entire childhood, apparently didn’t even put up a fight against my sister.”

 

Nick relented.  “I’m sorry Thor.  This was the worst moment of your life wasn’t it, fighting Hela.”

 

“It’s a stiff competition and yes it was.” Thor said.  Loki scoffed. “You didn’t really die all those times Loki don’t sulk.”

 

“I’ll sulk if I damn well please.” Loki crossed his arms.  

 

“Focus gentlemen.  You’ve defeated Hela once before, how do we do it?”  Steve spoke up from the corner of the room where he was standing.

 

“We obviously didn’t defeat her.  Destroying our entire homeworld with the long prophesied Ragnarok just slowed her down a bit.” Thor shouted.

 

“Any bright ideas?” Nick asked around.

 

“Dozens.” Loki said.

 

“Not you.” Fury gestured towards Loki without even looking at him.

 

“Hang on a minute.  There’s a reason we keep him around besides my foolish affection for the brat.  When the rest of us are fresh out of ideas, he dreams up something wild.” Thor said.

 

“I don’t want wild, I want successful.” Nick said furiously, pun intended.

 

“I often find the two are one and the same.  I possess some abilities that I have not disclosed to you humans.” Loki clasped his hands behind his back authoritatively as he looked around and prepared to be listened to.  Once he was confident he had everyone’s attention he continued. “I may be able to project myself into space to speak to her. I could at least get an idea of her plan and trajectory, perform some reconnaissance.”

 

“Your projections have never had that kind of range Loki.” Thor crossed his arms and looked disapprovingly.

 

“Well you see,” but he was interrupted.

 

“I can amplify his projections.  This would be a new one but it’s worth a shot.” His wife interjected.

 

“Isn’t she many light years away?” Steve asked those gathered.

 

“Well, we would target the projection directly to her.  I am optimistic that distance will be less critical if I focus specifically on appearing before Hela.” Loki was guessing blindly.

 

“I wouldn’t mind some intel if you could get it.” Nick said skeptically.

 

As they had done many times before, Loki sat down cross legged in front of his beloved and extended out his palms as she did likewise.  They had projected his spectre into computers, across the world, and once into the sun, just for fun. This should be no different, they thought optimistically.  

 

As his conscious awareness left his body behind, Loki found himself projecting through space as though he was riding the bifrost, except completely out in the open among the stars which seemed to race past him.  He thought to himself that he would have to do this again when he didn’t have such an urgent task. Flying through space was a lot more fun when his body was safely warm on Midgard.

 

He stayed focused on his task.  Seek Hela. His spectral projection raced faster than the speed of light across the galaxy for several minutes until he found himself sitting atop the head of an enormous wolf who was running through space.  He did his best to sit nonchalantly, as a lounge singer might sit atop a piano during her song.

 

“I hear you were able to make the acquaintance of my wife even without an introduction.  My apologies for my dereliction.”

 

“My invitation to your wedding seems to have gotten lost in transit.  Pity your only sister had to miss it.” The gallup of her wolf steed didn’t slow to make conversation.

 

“Don’t worry, as per Midgard tradition, we have saved some of the cake.”

 

“I’ll have some when I arrive.  So you’re married now. I really have been languishing in space for a long time.  I’ll have to make up for what I’ve lost.”

 

“Which is something I would love to discuss with you dear sister.  Given that you killed half our people and then I triggered Ragnarok so I could escape with the rest of them, I think at this point you and I are about even and now we can start over fresh.”

 

“You think wrongly.”

 

“Ah.  That is unfortunate.  What exactly is it you hope to achieve on Midgard then?”

 

“I will conquer the humans and then force you and Thor to watch everyone you have ever cared about die horribly and then I will kill you both, slowly and painfully.” Hela said as dispassionately as if she was describing the agenda for a church committee meeting.

 

“Interesting, interesting.  Counter-proposal. Instead of doing those things, why don’t I set you up with a nice house of your very own in Norway.  We could be neighbors.”

 

“Why would I need to do that when I can just take your house after I kill you?”

 

“It was worth a shot.”

 

“You thought you’d offer me the sleeves off your vest then.  You Odinsons never learn do you.”

 

“Technically,” but he did not finish.  Hela had grown bored with the conversation.  She conjured a black spear and hurled it through the center of his projection.

 

He woke up violently back at the Avengers compound.  

 

With a bloody wound in his stomach.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

“What happened?!” his wife shrieked.

 

“Negotiations with Hela,” he winced and laid down, clutching at his abdomen, “did not go smoothly.”

 

“This should be impossible, we only projected your image, matter should pass right through it.” She was distraught.  She seldom saw her husband bleed, whatever hardships they endured.

 

“I seem to recall being told we have no idea what’s possible.  Brother will you recover?” Thor crouched down to examine the wound.

 

“Eventually, thanks for your concern.” Loki grimaced.

 

“Steve, go get the Avengers back together so they stand ready to fight, along with the new powereds we’ve been training.  We need all the help we can get. Thor, gather up any surviving Asgardians on this planet, tell them their time has come. My agents will get you a list.”  Nick Fury was now all business.

 

“A list?  There’s more than just Brunhilde?”  Loki asked incredulously, still clutching at his wound.

 

“Yeah, we have a Berserker and a few others in hiding.” Nick was hurried.

 

“A Berserker, I would say that’s good news except I expect he may take her side.” Thor chided.

 

“Well, let’s find out before it happens.  Loki, can you stand?” Loki sized himself up and nodded, although somewhat unconvincingly.  “Good. You two,” he pointed to Loki and his wife, “come with me.” 

 

Everyone went about their respective assignments with urgency.  As they walked, Nick Fury made some calls around SHIELD to make sure they were prepared for the next space invasion.

 

“This way.” Fury indicated.  The two of them walked through the door into a small white room where Fury gestured.  As soon as they were both past the threshold, the door closed behind them.

 

“Nick, there’s nothing in here except a med kit and a bed,” the goddess said, turning around and looking out the small window.

 

“I can’t count on him not to join his sister in her efforts to conquer Earth and I can’t trust you not to do whatever he’s doing.  Besides, you two are apparently her targets. I’m putting you in here for safe keeping.” Nick said.

 

“You idiot, I’m one of the only ones alive who has faced Hela. I can help.  How can I join someone who wants me dead? She just stabbed me, I’m not her ally!” Loki exclaimed.  But his complaints fell on unlistening ears as Nick walked down the corridor. Loki pounded angrily on the window as Nick walked away, shouting for him to return to no avail before he collapsed into a heap, moaning at the pain in his wound.  She brought over the medical kit.

 

“I’ve never had to do this for you before, usually you start healing from anything right away.  This one looks nasty though.”

 

“Well, it’s a special kind of weapon that can apparently cause my body harm by stabbing my consciousness.  It is unpleasant.” he said through gritted teeth.

 

A window appeared on the other side of the room where a mirror had been.  Standing on the other side of the glass was a strangely familiar face.

 

“Phil, son of Coul?  You’re looking rather alive, aren’t you.” Loki said, tilting his head to the side.

 

“No thanks to you and your last attempt to rule my planet.” Agent Coulson said in his usual emotionless manner.

 

“Intriguing.  So glad to see you.  Be a dear and let us out of here will you?”

 

“I’ll do nothing of the kind Loki.  No offense to the Mrs. but I’m with Director Fury on this one.  I don’t trust you any further than I can throw you and I don’t think I can even pick you up.”

 

“Nor should you, but in this instance Phil,”

 

“Save it.  I’m just here to get information from you, although I’m not sure why I would believe a word you said to me.”

 

“It won’t help.” Loki shook his head and scooted himself into an upright position, still holding onto his wound.

 

“What are Hela’s powers?”

 

“She can conjure weapons from thin air.  She destroyed the first Mjolnir with her bare hands.  She threw me and Thor from the bifrost into space. Her powers are to kill anyone in her path with no regard or care.  She can apparently stab my projection and it injures my body. Rather badly. She’s one of the most dangerous creatures in the universe.  Odin spent his life locking her away in another dimension so she would stop killing.”

 

“How did he do that?  Can you do that?”

 

“I don’t know.  Let me out of here and I’ll figure it out.”

 

“I couldn’t let you out of here if I wanted to, which I don’t.  Thanks for the intel. Hope to never see you again. I’ll send our medic.  Ma’am.” He added, nodding his head respectfully before turning and walking out.  Two guards remained behind in the room before the window turned back into a mirror.

 

Loki laughed but then grimaced again.  “It always amuses me when humans think they are better off stashing me away in a box.  Now I’m both injured and irritated.”

 

“Any bright ideas?”

 

“Many but they’ll have to wait until I’ve had medical attention I’m afraid.”  He rotated to lay back down. The mirror in the room turned back into a window.  A petite young lady with long brown hair and big, intelligent eyes stood on the other side, flanked on either side by skeletal metal robots.  Her face was fearless but even through the wall she could not conceal the sound of her reverberating terror.

 

“So.  You’re the monster that killed Phil Coulson.”

 

“And you are?”

 

“Jemma Fitz-Simmons.  I’ve been told to examine your injury and see if I can fix you.”

 

“Thank you, I’m most appreciative.” Loki sighed with relief.

 

“I’m not doing it for you.  You’ve suffered the first injury we know of at the hands of Hela who is apparently on her way here as we speak.  You’re my lab rat.”

 

“Glad to be of service.  You’re welcome to come in here, we don’t bite.”

 

She hesitated.  “Come on, you really think I’m stupid enough to pick a fight with my physician.”  She braced herself and hit the button to open the entryway.


	9. Hidden behind the SHIELD

“Agent Fitz-Simmons, your biometrics report on the injuries inflicted by Hela’s psychic weapon please.” Two days after Hela’s frightening visage had appeared in Central Park, Agent Coulson was growing increasingly on edge.  Despite their efforts not to panic the populace, cell phone footage of the apparition was spreading like wildfire. Although most people were just watching on repeat the part where Steve Rogers tore the bench out of the ground.  It was already a popular gif.

 

“It’s not good.  Hela appears to conjure her weapons out of thin air, or in this case the blackness of space.  She is, in fact, rearranging atoms and molecules to form a new compound which I’m going to call Helanium because I don’t have time to think of anything more specific.  The weapons she can forge out of this compound are, I surmise, as hard as diamonds and attach to the flesh of the weapon’s victim. There were only trace amounts of the compound in Loki’s wound since he was not physically attacked with the weapon so I surmised that since the weapon is a psychic weapon to begin with, she was able to transfer some of the weapon material through his spectral connection.”

 

“None of that makes much sense, is there anything we can do about injuries from these wounds?” Agent May was growing as concerned as her companion.

 

Agent Fitz-Simmons shook her head.  “I was able to separate the compound from Loki’s injuries although I gathered it was rather painful, or certainly would have been if he were human.  He wouldn’t let me monitor his pain levels. Once the compound was removed, he began to heal relatively quickly despite the gravity of the injury because of his unique physiology.  But…” she paused, looking distraught, “that was a psychic injury with trace amounts of the compound and Loki is a thousand year old god who can survive in outer space. If she comes here with those weapons, I don’t surmise I will be treating many injuries.”

 

“You’re saying you think,” Agent Coulson started to say what they were all thinking.

 

“Between my research and Thor’s description, I have to conclude that her weapons are almost universally fatal.”  Jemma tried to maintain her businesslike demeanor.

 

Agents Coulson and May shook their heads.  “Agent Fitz-Simmons, your report on surveillance of the Odinsons.”

 

Leopold looked as though he had not gotten much sleep in the last two days.  “It’s completely pointless and I would like to stop? Look, he does something new every day.  See right now, look at this. There are four cameras in the room. Each one of them has an image of him looking at the camera and making a creepy clown smile.  So I went to the two-way mirror to see what my own eyes would tell me. He was standing in front of the two way mirror, just staring, with the same smile. So I think he knows I hate clowns.”

 

“Have you concluded anything from your observations?”

 

“Primarily that I’m never going to sleep again.  There is one interesting thing. For a time I monitored them with infrared.  At first this worked so I concluded his interference with the cameras was an entirely visual illusion.  But look at it now.” Leopold Fitz-Simmons held up a tablet with an infrared image on it. Instead of humanoid figures, the infrared formed the shape of a disembodied smile, like the floating face of the Cheshire Cat.

 

“So is he able to create an infrared illusion or is he hacking into the computer systems?” Agent May asked, putting her hands on her hips.

 

“That I don’t know yet.  But between a lack of sleep and his scary clown face, I haven’t felt this paranoid since my last brain injury.  I’m in no shape to find the answer right now.”

 

“Get some sleep Agent Fitz-Simmons.  I need you at your best.” Agent Coulson ordered.  “Thanks for your research on the weapons Agent Fitz-Simmons, can you take your husband back to your quarters and administer him a light sedative?”  The Fitz-Simmons nodded and made their exit.

 

“If he’s on our side as he insists, why would he be spending his efforts to foil our surveillance?  He hasn’t come to us with a bright idea yet.” Agent May said in frustration.

 

“Thor says he will and I trust Thor.  Tell me, if you were in a cell with four cameras in it, what would you do?” he asked his best agent.

 

She thought for a second.  “I would kick them down. Or obstruct them with whatever was available.”

 

“Exactly.  We should never assume that a desire to avoid surveillance is indicative of something nefarious.”

 

“I can’t believe you’re being so magnanimous when it’s Loki we’re talking about.  Or need I remind you.” She leaned in to look him in the eye.

 

“You needn’t.”  He stood up from the stool where he was seated with a grunt.  “I’m getting too old for this Melinda. Let’s go back to our god neutralizing drawing board.”

 

“We have no idea if the containment vessel holding Loki is actually holding him and we won’t know until he attempts escape.  But I’m not convinced that something that would hold Loki would hold Hela.” May quipped.

 

“Neither am I but we don’t have any other test subjects.  If I know anything about Loki, at some point he will get bored enough to try to make his way out.  Even with his wife keeping him company.”

 

“He will try to escape much faster if we separate them.”  May observed.

 

“Do that and we’ll be fighting three Asgardians instead of one.  I haven’t had enough coffee for that.” She nodded. He wasn’t wrong.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

“How are you feeling?” She asked him.  He had been unusually sedentary as he recovered from his injury.  Agent Fitz-Simmons had offered anesthesia for the procedure to remove the traces of Helanium compound from his wound but he had declined, stating that he needed his wits about him.  In the face of his almost total stoicism, only she was aware of how much pain he was enduring.

 

“Don’t you know?”  He was lying face up on their prison bed, eyes closed, unmoving.

 

“I do but it’s polite to ask.  You seem improved but frustrated.”

 

“I’m fighting fit.”  He leapt out of bed and began to pace.  “But I’m at a total loss for any inspiration.  I was hoping to have some bright ideas by now.”

 

“What have you tried?”

 

“I’ve exhausted my usual contingency plan ideas.  For the last day I have been trying to no avail to enter the Odinsleep and commune with the forefathers.  Nothing. Frigga hasn’t answered my requests. Odin hasn’t. Heimdall. Even Thor’s friends the warriors. No one is answering me.”  He didn’t pound his fist into anything, not wanting to raise the alarm of their captors, but he rubbed his hands together nervously.

 

“Why wouldn’t they respond?  Hela’s return seems like a worthy event for them to weigh in.”

 

“I’m probably being pushed to the fringes again.  Not truly welcome in Valhalla.” Loki lamented.

 

“Well, that’s a worthless conclusion.”  She remarked.

 

“Not if it’s the truth.” He snapped at her.

 

“Even if it’s the truth.  It’s a worthless conclusion.  If you’re being excluded for personal reasons that doesn’t shed any light on the solution.  Is there any other reason you may be excluded?”

 

He thought for a moment.  This logic was appealing to him, although he did not particularly want to push past his own feelings when he felt he was due a good stewing.  Still, she was right that it would be unproductive.

 

“Allright.  Why would they exclude me from Valhalla when I need information.  Perhaps they are closed for business with Hela on the loose.”

 

“Perhaps, but wouldn’t helping you defeat her be worth the gamble if they had information you needed?”

 

“Possibly.  So why else?” He sat down on the bed and rubbed his chin in thought.”

 

“Either they don’t have the information to give you, or,”

 

“Or I already have it.”  He closed his eyes and ran through his memories.  

 

He opened his eyes.  “That’s it.” He turned to face her.  “It’s time we got out of here.”

 

“Finally.” She sighed with relief.  

 

Loki easily slipped into the computer that controlled the lock on their chamber.  Before he left, he figured he had better take a look at the human’s current plan to fight Hela.

 

What he found was alarming.

 

SHIELD was preparing to launch a barrage of targeted nuclear missiles directly into space, followed by a fleet of space capable jets armed with a variety of stunning, piercing and exploding weapons.  Essentially, they were preparing to launch everything they have. He snapped back into the room.

 

“Well this is a disaster.  They’re playing directly into her hands.  Weapons are her domain. The more weapons they throw at her, the stronger she becomes.”

 

“We have a way to stop it.” She noted to him.

 

He pouted.  “But we were saving that for a rainy day.”

 

“What day could possibly be rainier than your sister Hela coming back from the dead to conquer Earth and murder us both?”

 

“I figured some day I would be in trouble for something I did and we would need an escape plan.” He opined.

 

“Loki!”

 

“Fine.  Plan rainy day.”

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Director Fury stood in the situation room flanked by agents Coulson and May.  Agents Fitz-Simmons had emerged from their naps and were seated at computers along with their teams.  Hela was still several light hours away from Earth by their calculations, having passed by their far space monitoring systems previously.  Maybe as much as a day. Everyone expected to remain on high alert from that point until the end of the world.

 

Until the power went out.

 

“Leopold, talk to me, why aren’t our back-up power generators functioning?”

 

Agent Fitz-Simmons mashed buttons on his keyboard.  “I’m getting no response from my equipment, hang on I’ll run down to the generator room to,” 

 

The big screen in front of them lit up.  They were greeted by an enormous vision of Loki’s frightening smile.

 

“SHIELD.  You’re making a big mistake.  Don’t worry. I’m here to save you from yourselves.  Thank me later.” He waved and the screen went black again.

 

“Son of a,” Nick Fury shouted from the darkness.  The agents switched on the flashlights on their wrists.

 

“He’s taken out the entire network, nothing on my wrist communicator that requires internet is working at all.  It’s basically a hands free flashlight at the moment.” Leopold was growing frazzled again.

 

“Same. My hand is just a hand.” Agent Coulson shined his light around the room.  

 

“Patrol the halls in teams of two.  Don’t let them get out of here. Without the network we cannot launch the weapons and we are sitting ducks when Hela arrives.” Fury ordered.

 

Across the compound, the gods had made it out of their cell past two human guards who were easily overwhelmed by a wave of exhaustion.  As they came around a corner in the darkness, they encountered more of the skeletal robots who had apparently been assigned to guard them.

 

“Loki, why didn’t these shut down with everything else?”

 

“It would appear they operate independently of the SHIELD mainframe.  Stay behind me.” Loki extended out an arm protectively.

 

“Problem, they’re on the other side too.”  He turned and looked and sure enough, two more skeletal robots were approaching them.

 

“Remember these are the dumb robots.  SHIELD learned their lesson about giving robots the capacity for independent thought.”

 

“After the fourth or fifth round of catastrophic mistakes.” She quipped.

 

“That’s a pretty good learning curve for humanity, to be honest.  Ready?”

 

“Definitely not.”

 

They launched themselves towards their respective robots.  Just as anticipated, the robots first move was to attempt to grab them around the arms.  Step one, she ducked low and swept the leg of the first robot while dodging the grab of the second.  Their next move would be to swing to try to land a blow when their grapple attempt failed. She spun around behind it and grabbed its outstretched arm.  With her modified Asgardian strength, she ripped the arm off, and then the head, as it sputtered and collapsed.

 

“Loki, I did it, I fought something.”

 

He swung his arm past her as she heard a loud metal crunching sound from behind her head.  “You did. But you forgot the first one was going to get back up.”

 

“Sorry,” she said.

 

“Progress is progress.  We’ll keep practicing when we get back to the boat.”

 

“They’ve probably confiscated the boat.”

 

“And how does that ever work out for them?”  Loki said, as he lunged around the corner and took out another robot.  “I think that’s all of the ones I scouted out.”

 

“Yeah.  Now it’s my turn.”

 

“You and your no killing human preferences.”

 

“It’s more than a preference Loki.”  He shrugged.

 

Two agents with stun guns were coming towards them.  They were frightened. She wasn’t sure if frightening them more would trigger flight or fight response.  But as they had planned, there was only one way to find out. An image of Loki appeared in front of them and she cranked up their fear.  One of them fired, the other ran. The likely result of any coin flip. But the weapons fire went straight through Loki’s illusion. When he appeared unharmed by the shot, this agent decided to join his colleague and turn his tail.

 

“That’s two.  How many more frightened agents are roaming around this place that I’m not allowed to kill as we make our escape?”

 

“A few dozen.”

 

“Can I maim some of them?”  She ignored him.

 

“I’d love to see you try.”  Agent Melinda May, who ignored the admonition to proceed in pairs, was approaching them slowly, extending out her gun and flashlight towards them.

 

“See, this one’s small, no one would miss her.” Loki false whispered, distinctly loud enough for Agent May to hear him.

 

“You and I both know that’s not true.  This one is Agent Coulson’s favorite, don’t add another tally to your list.”  

 

“Don’t move, I will shoot you both.” Agent May admonished.

 

“I don’t think you will.”  The goddess said.

 

“Why don’t you find out.” May said boldly.

 

“You’re torn,” observed the empath.

 

“I have my orders from Director Fury to bring you in.”

 

“And you have Thor’s promise that he will figure out how to stop Hela.”

 

“Thor isn’t my boss.”  She took a step towards them.

 

“Melinda, you’re a warrior.  Do you really think sending all your weapons in the direction of the goddess of war is going to yield successful results?”  Loki extended out his hands to show he was not armed.

 

“Where did you hear my name?” It was less a question and more an accusation.

 

“I’ve been here for weeks and I pay close attention.” Loki also took a single step closer.

 

“Stop there, don’t come any closer.” 

 

“I don’t intend to.  But why don’t you stay here and think about whether stopping us is what you really want to do.”

 

Agent Coulson found Agent May ten minutes later, standing in the same spot.  “Melinda?”

 

“I couldn’t make up my mind whether to follow them.”  She was still holding up her weapon.

 

“Indecisive.  That’s a new one.”

 

“They were right.  I was torn between your trust in Thor and Director Fury’s mistrust of Loki.  Even before I saw them.” May lowered the weapon.

 

“Well, let’s hope Thor’s right.  I think they’ve escaped.”


	10. The Real Fight

“Remember how I promised you I have a surprise for you?”  Loki put on his most endearing seduction voice, or at least the best one he could muster at a dead sprint away from the Avengers compound, which meant he had probably done something bad.

 

“You’ve been promising for a little while now but I still don’t have my surprise.”

 

“That’s because I’m not convinced you’re going to like it.”

“Which means you’re certain I’m going to hate it.”

 

“Well, you were going to hate it.  But I think it may come in useful about now.”

 

They had been running due West towards the center of New York State for nearly 

an hour which meant they were well clear of the compound.  Loki had been periodically releasing illusions to cover their tracks.  Not that it was about to matter.

 

“Run through this tree now.”

 

“Nice try.  The world is about to end and you’re trying to get me to smack myself into a tree.”

 

“No, it’s just that you need a good speed going to make it through.”

 

“I’ve fallen for this before.  You first.”

 

“I need to make sure you get through safely from here.  Would I lie to you?” Loki looked hurt.

 

“Yes.  So many times.  Especially to get me to run head first into a tree.  Loki, it’s the apocalypse, stop messing around.” She put her hands on her hips.  He both loved and hated the times she reminded him of Frigga. 

 

“You never let me have any fun.” He pouted.

 

“More lies.  Which tree is it really?”

 

He continued pouting as he showed her another tree fifteen feet away that was the actual portal.  A running start was not required to pass through it either. Once he demonstrated for her that this tree was a portal by putting his hand through it, and she had double checked with her own hand, she took a step into the tree.  He followed along a few seconds later after covering their tracks to the portal once more.

 

She found herself in an unfamiliar forest in Norway, apparently nearly a hundred miles from their Norway house.  Not that they could go there right now anyway, being on the lam from SHIELD and the Avengers after hacking their computers, tearing apart their robots, and neutralizing their agents.  All together, it did sound bad. 

 

“Was that my surprise?  It made for a nice escape but it hardly solves our Hela problem.”

 

“The surprise is a mile up the path.”  He started walking briskly up the narrow woodland trail with her following hot on his heels.  She remained skeptical, but like Thor, had learned that his strange last minute ditch ideas tended to work out.  Often because who would see them coming?

 

As they finally reached a clearing at the end of the path, she gasped.  Before them was a substantial wooden structure with steeply sloped shingled roofs on the different levels and a single steeple on top.  The exterior walls were painted a pristine white and the structure was beautifully kept and quite new. But the three story structure was not what made her gasp.

 

In front of the structure was a larger than life golden statue of the two of them.  Loki was standing tall, wearing his horned helmet, and looking outwards with a noble expression, gesturing to the distance like the painting of George Washington crossing the Rubicon.  She was in his other arm, looking up at him adoringly. 

 

It was grotesque.

 

She did not say a word.

 

“What do you think?” He asked hopefully.  She remained silent. “It was a gift,” he said apologetically.  “From the emperor of Japan,” he added. She glared at him. 

 

“Loki, what is this place?”

 

“Promise you won’t be angry.” He said with his hands out as though to deflect a blow.

 

“No, I do not promise that.”

 

“Well, we have accumulated some...fans.  Over the last few months. They like to send us gifts.  So I thought, well, perhaps we need a place to put them.  I set up a small gallery and meant to show you the gifts. But then our followers started coming here to look at the gifts.”

 

“And?” She asked, knowing there was more.

 

“And now there’s a sort of community here.”

 

“You started a cult without me knowing.”

 

“Naturally, if you’d known you would have stopped me.” He said smiling.

 

“Loki!”

 

“It’s not a cult.  Dennis does not impose any kinds of rules on,”  Loki was still defensive.

 

“Who is Dennis?”

 

“This got off on entirely the wrong foot.  Why don’t we go inside and I’ll show you everything including all your presents.”  Loki took her elbow to guide her to the door which she yanked away as she started walking.

 

“How did this place get paid for?” She asked.

 

“Remember how you didn’t want to charge fees to governments for our ritual to be performed upon request?”

 

“I thought we agreed that we wouldn’t.”

 

“Yes.  You did think that.”  She clenched her fists.  “Don’t you see, they preferred it this way.  They felt very uncomfortable owing us a favor and preferred to square up with gifts and currency.  Really I just accepted to relieve them of that burden of feeling indebted.” 

 

“You negotiated all of this behind my back?”

 

“It was not hard to convince them that you preferred not to be bothered with the transactional details of our arrangements.  You know people on your planet can be quite sexist.”

 

“Yes Loki, I do know that.  Remember your guess that I would hate my surprise?”  They had reached the front door.

 

“Wait.” He stopped her at the door.  “You’ll like this part.”

 

He opened the door and ushered her in.  The first floor consisted almost entirely of a single large room that was covered wall to wall with artwork in a variety of different styles and every color.  Modified photographs, imaginative drawings, three-dimensional sculptures. All of the two of them. Standing side by side on their boat with the wind in their hair, laying in the soil of the rainforest with plants bursting from their fingertips, swimming in the ocean with their whales.  It seemed that their story had inspired a great deal of creativity.

 

She had to admit, the art was beautiful.  And flattering.

 

“Your majesties, you honor me with a visit at last!”  A short and stout man came running down the stairs wearing a black robe with golden trim.  He hurried to put on a little golden hat until Loki made a gesture to him indicating he should not.  He stuffed the cap in his pocket and bowed to the couple.

 

“Even more beautiful in person than in all of these paintings I enjoy every single day.  Should I escort her to the basement to see the really good stuff?” The man who she assumed must be Dennis winked at her.

 

“No thank you Dennis, we have more pressing concerns.” Loki said nervously.

 

“Nonsense,” she said looking at the 18+ warning on the staircase leading down to the basement, “why don’t you lead the way?”  She plastered on a fake smile with enough force to crack stone. “But first, tell me. Who exactly is here?”

 

“Well, there’s me.  Dennis.” He made a little dramatic bow.  “And then there’s the community who live out back.”  He ushered her to a window where she began to appreciate just how large of a compound, which was the best word to describe it, had been built in a short time.  It appeared fairly populated by a variety of people engaged in different degrees of idleness and creativity. There were people playing music, dancing, reading, making crafts.  It could have been the off day at a renaissance festival. 

 

“What are the guiding principles for the community?” she asked Dennis.

 

“To get in someone has to be a true fan of you two.”  Dennis said proudly.

 

“What makes someone a true fan?”

 

“There’s different tests.  Often they bring art they’ve made or sing a song they’ve written.  A good bit of the art in there is from present or former community members.  They’re quite talented. Sometimes we also give them a quiz on your trivia.”

 

“Is that it?  Any other rules?”  Dennis looked confused at her question.  She turned to her husband. “Darling have you founded a cult with no principles?”

 

“I’m not sure what you mean.  They founded it. The principle is to be our biggest fans.”  He smiled and put his hands out gleefully while she sighed, holding the bridge of her nose as if a headache was coming on.

 

“Okay if we are going to have followers we should probably have principles.”  She explained as though it should have been obvious.

 

“There will be time for that later.  Let’s go greet them shall we? Dennis, how many are there now?”

 

“About two hundred and fifty on any given day.  Most stay for a few months before moving on to their next thing but they write to us. I can show you where I keep their letters.”  Dennis was hoping for positive feedback.

 

“We will see if that’s enough.  I fear it won’t be but it’s a start.” Loki had momentarily forgotten the anger of his beloved as he moved on to strategizing.

 

“Citizens of Lokistan!” He shouted as he walked outside.  All of the folks in the compound square and those in their various rooms in the extended wooden structure turned towards him and squealed upon seeing the couple.  They ran forward to where he stood. Not by accident, the wooden porch out the back door from the art gallery into the spacious courtyard was raised up like a stage so they found themselves standing a few feet above the crowd.

 

He signaled for the clamoring to calm down and waited patiently.  “I am here to make a request of all of you, my most loyal followers.  But first, a gift. You may gaze upon my wife who finally agreed to meet all of you.”  He took her by the hand and pulled her a little forward on the wooden stage. The gathered crowds cheered and whistled, hollering greetings and applauding furiously.  She was still filled with rage, but sensing their genuine glee warmed her heart a bit. Loki released her hand.

 

“I am not exaggerating when I say the fate of the world may depend on all of you doing your best.”  He savored the dramatic pause that followed. He had everyone’s rapt attention. “You have heard Dennis tell the tale of the vision I received from Odin the evening of my induction into manhood.”  He certainly made a largely failed bachelor party sound cosmically important. “Odin reminded me of the special connection that the people of Midgard have to the gods of Asgard. And I feel that connection so strongly, here, with all of you.”  

 

He paused again, placing both hands over his heart and gazing admiringly around to his followers who again all cheered.  She worked hard at exercising one of her worst skills: not revealing what she was thinking with her face. Two hands on his heart meant he was trying to convey his most heartfelt sincerity.  What on Earth was he up to?

 

“First, a test.  In a moment, I need all of you to make a wish at once.  And specifically, direct that wish to me. If you like, you can think of it as a prayer.  What matters is you wish it with all your heart. Take a moment to think.” Even as they thought, he already felt the energy of their hopes and wishes flowing towards him.

 

“All right everyone.  Make your wish now.”

 

He braced himself as over two hundred prayers flooded his head all at once.  He felt their desires right down to his core.

 

“Honeybear?” she asked him.  He looked up and realized he had fallen down on the stage.  He hopped up to his feet and rubbed his hands together excitedly.

 

“Even better that nearly all of you made the same wish.  Don’t you worry, once this crisis is all over, the missus and I will be back to grant it,” he said with a wink, receiving laughter and cheers in response.  “But now I need you to do something more pressing.”

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Detective Jones had been ushered through the Avengers compound towards Steve’s room, wondering why he had, for the first time ever, failed to greet her as she pulled up.  Power had been restored but the computers still only played Loki’s message on a loop when they were powered on, so the security system was lower tech than usual.

 

She came in to find him sitting on his austere cot, facing away from her, and looking down at a large document.

 

“I’ve been trying to get ahold of you ever since Hela appeared in Central Park, no one would tell me if you were okay.” She walked up behind him but hesitated when he failed to respond.

 

“I was busy,” he said sternly.

 

“...Is something wrong?” she asked.  He did not answer with words but instead threw the document, opened to a page around the middle, at her feet.  She picked it up and recognized it almost immediately. He was reading her dossier on Mrs. Odinson.

 

“Steve, I can explain.”

 

“What’s there to explain?  All of my best friends are currently sitting around reading an unnecessarily detailed account of our first evening together.  Of all of the betrayals I’ve ever experienced, I gotta say this one hits awful hard.”

 

It would have felt less awful if he were furious and yelling.  He just sounded defeated.

 

“I didn’t include any of those kinds of details, all that I left out of the report.”

 

“I would have preferred that, Andrea.  You tell them just how many inches around my chest is and whether my toes are warm.  That’s all information they have. No, this file tells them,” and he picked it back up off the ground and rolled it up in his hands, “how scared I was.”  He closed his eyes and looked down and shook his head.

 

She waited a long time.  “There’s nothing wrong with being afraid of things Steve.”

 

“No, other people get to be afraid of things.  I’m Captain America. I don’t get to be afraid.  Not of Loki, not of Ultron, not of Thanos, not of Hydra.  Certainly not scared of a woman who wants to kiss me. Why do you think I kept that hidden for so long?”  She stared down at her shoes.

 

“I didn’t use your name.” She offered weakly.

 

“Yeah, it’ll take a genius to figure it out.  Turns out, this compound is full of geniuses. You know, you’re not the first person to play on my emotions to try to get information, but this stings something smart.”

 

“That’s not what happened.” She realized that this could be the end of what they had going.  Tears started streaming down her face.

 

“Oh really.  What is there in this file that you didn’t get because of your relationship with me, hm?”  He was moving from defeated to accusatory.

 

“Steve, please. You’ve got it all wrong.”

 

“You know, I told you.  Right up front. I had barely even kissed a girl before you.  Let alone opening up my heart to her. And now I’m reading it all in an NYPD file.”

 

“Steve, if I didn’t bring anything back on Mrs. Odinson, they weren’t going to let me keep seeing you.”

 

He finally turned and looked at her.  “What?”

 

“My boss is allowed to terminate any relationship I have with a powered.  He told me I could keep seeing you only if I was gathering intel on Loki and his wife.  He was getting on my case every day. This,” she took the document from him, “was as little as I could get away with.  I thought about quitting the force over this Steve. But I can’t stop being a cop any more than you can stop being a soldier.  It’s just who I am.” She walked over to him but didn’t dare touch him, even though she badly wanted a hug. “I’m so sorry.” He closed his eyes and looked away.  She said through her tears, “I know you might want to stop seeing me over this but can you just, think about it before you decide anything?”

 

Seconds were hours.

 

“I just need some time.  And I have to see if any of what you’ve got is going to help us figure out what they’re up to.”  After a moment he reached out and put his hand on her shoulder. She put her hand on top of his as he spoke.  “I won’t keep you waiting forever. I just need to clear my head.” She didn’t get a moment alone to dry her eyes because the guards to escort her out of the compound came in as soon as he left the room.

 

Fortunately, or unfortunately, they were almost immediately plunged into darkness again.  As angry as he was, Steve’s instincts kicked in and he was back at Detective Jones’s side, adopting a protective stance in front of her.  The screen in the hall turned on. This time it was Thor’s face.

 

“Hello.  It’s me, your precious Thor.  As you may be aware, I and my heroic brother Loki were unable to defeat our sister Hela, who is on her way here to kill us.  We used a force strong enough to destroy our homeworld and it still wasn’t enough. She is a goddess of warfare who gains her power from weapons.  If you launch an attack, she will only grow stronger. I am about to tell you something we have kept from humanity for centuries. As formidable as we, the gods of Asgard may seem, it is you who hold the power over us.  Because when you pray to us, we hear it. We feel it. And we long to grant your requests. 

 

I tell you this at risk to my own sanity because this is how you defeat Hela.  Loki’s followers have started an around the clock vigil to send prayers to her but I fear she is too strong.  We need humanity to pray to Hela, or wish if that makes you more comfortable, for her protection. Wish in your heart that she will ride the skies on her great wolf Fenris to keep you safe.  If enough of your prayers reach her before she reaches this planet, you may change her mind. Good luck.”

 

Steve and Andrea stood in the hallway stunned as the lights came back on.  Their two guards had run to their emergency posts and were nowhere to be seen.  Finally, Andrea broke the silence.

 

“Okay, that was definitely Loki right?”

 

“Oh yeah, not even a shred of doubt.” Steve said.  “He was barely even trying.”

 

“That’s true.  He could have fooled us if he really wanted to.”  Andrea speculated.

 

“So he didn’t much care if we figured him out, but he still wanted Thor’s credibility for his message.  So do you think it’s true? The way to stop Hela is a worldwide prayer circle?” Steve was too busy handling a crisis to remember he was supposed to be mad at her.

 

“For once, thoughts and prayers may actually stop a mass murderer.  The irony hurts my soul.”

 

“If we think he’s telling the truth.  Couldn’t our prayers strengthen her? Maybe he’s preparing us to be conquered in the hopes of gaining her favor because he’s given up on defeating her.”  Steve tossed out.

 

“I doubt he would be eager to kneel to someone else.  And you were there in the park. She wants to kill his wife.”

 

Steve rubbed his hair the way he always did when he was thinking.  She did her best to choke back her tears, hoping this wouldn’t be the last time she would see that gesture.  “Well, let’s forget about him for a second. How plausible is this?” She tried to hide from him the tear she was wiping and he was decent enough to pretend along with her.  “It would explain some things. I assumed when she helped you that she must have had ulterior motives. But she just did what you asked her.”

 

“She did impose conditions.  But really only for my benefit.”

 

“Any decent human with those abilities would probably have helped you too.”

 

“Maybe.  But a decent human could also have bargained for something.” He put his hands on his hips.  “Here’s something you don’t know. Remember how I said she came over and started talking to me about my love life, unsolicited, that first day they were staying at the compound?”

 

“Yeah, you said it was worse than fighting Thanos.  I remember.”

 

“I wished she would.  Right before she did it.”

 

“You what?”

 

“I had heard that she talked to people about their innermost feelings.  And I was afraid. But I also wished that I could get a consult like that.  To be honest I had been feeling pretty down and out. And seconds later it happened.”

 

“It is kind of her thing.  But that’s also a tick in the plausible column.”  She started to pace but stopped dead in her tracks.  “There’s a way to test this.” She looked him in his gorgeous eyes and almost forgot what she was going to say.  “You’re not going to like it.”

 

A look of recognition from Steve Rogers.  “Absolutely not.”

 

“What clearer way to determine if he’s telling the truth?  At least about whether he can hear them.”

 

“I am not doing anything to feed his god complex.” Steve shook his head.

 

“So don’t.  He’s telling us that Asgardians are like pseudo-genies.  Make a wish and they’re inclined to grant it.” That proclamation made Steve raise an eyebrow.  “You’re not praying to him like your prayers to God. You’re testing to see if your prayers make them your servant.  It’s the opposite.” 

 

At this point Steve walked back into his room and sat down on his bunk, looking at the television screen in the corner.  “When you put it that way it sounds appealing. But you’re asking me to sit down here by my bunk and pray in my head the way I do in church to a guy I’ve not only met but fought.  How can I do that?”

 

“I don’t know but we don’t have much time.”  She went over and sat next to him, although she didn’t feel like she should touch him.  “I will too. We need to tell both of them that we really, really need to know if their plan will work.”

 

“Okay.”  Steve said.

 

“Okay?”

 

“Okay.”  He reached out and took her hands.  “It’s not praying though.” She shook her head no, relishing the feeling of his hands around hers.  


	11. Hail Hela Hail Mary

A few minutes had passed since they had begun their attempts to verify whether Asgardians could hear human wishes.  They had tried a mix of saying them aloud and thinking them.

 

“How are we thinking he’s going to verify he’s heard us?  Communications in here are still down.” Andrea asked. “He’s not likely to reveal his location to us anyway.”

 

Steve was growing more and more frustrated.  He closed his eyes again and said “Hey Loki, you son of a,”

 

Before he could say his language swears, the ding sounded on his phone to indicate he had a text message.

 

“Leave Frigga out of this.”

 

The sender of the text was not a number but a garbled mix of letters, numbers and symbols.  Steve typed a response but kept getting an “unable to send” message in reply.

 

“You said that one aloud Steve, maybe they have the place bugged.”

 

“Loki can do a lot of things at once but I can’t imagine he’s listening to the bugs in this room right now on top of whatever else he has going.” Steve observed.  Detective Jones agreed with him.

 

Steve tried one more time.  “Loki please help me understand why you think this will work.  I really need to know that this is going to work.”

 

The phone dinged again.

 

“Ask Thor.  I’m busy.”

 

“Now listen here Loki, if you want the people in this compound to spend the next day praying to your sister instead of preparing to fight her, I’m going to need some answers to my questions.” Steve said aloud to the room.  Andrea had no doubt that these words were sincere.

 

The phone rang.  No particular number, just random characters.

 

“Steve, I don’t care what you people do in the compound.”

 

“Then why did you send us a message about praying to Hela?”

 

“You think I just sent that to you?  I used SHIELD’s computers to broadcast worldwide.”

 

“In English?”

 

“I’m a god, people hear what I say in their own language.  Will you stop pestering us?”

 

“You broke out of here and then issued a worldwide demand that people pray to your elder sister who’s on her way here to conquer Earth.  If this is a scheme I’m going to hunt you down and,”

 

“You clearly have no idea the sacrifice I’ve made to offer this solution.”

 

“You don’t know the meaning of the word sacrifice Loki.”

 

“I know it better than you ever will.  Think for a moment you self righteous guard dog.  Now the world knows we can hear their prayers, and that my big bad sister is on her way here.  How do you think my wife is faring right about now?”

 

A pause from Steve who was sympathetic to her.  “Why her and not you?”

 

“I’m more accustomed, and more importantly I’ve done my best to sew a deep mistrust among humanity.  She, on the other hand, is somewhat popular.”

 

“Bring her back here Loki, maybe our agents can help her.”

 

“Your agents put us in a box.  No thank you.”

 

Detective Jones chimed in.  “Why hasn’t she experienced human prayers before now?”

 

“What?  Why do you think we’ve roamed the world for the last few months seeking out communities that want more children?  She’s gotten any number of prayers.”

 

“Then what’s so bad about these?” 

 

“Because this time people are terrified.  I think her empathic sense is amplifying that.”

 

“Put her on the phone.”

 

“What phone?”

 

“The phone you’re talking to us on right now.”

 

“I’m not talking to you on a phone.”

 

“What?  Then how are you…”

 

“You couldn’t begin to understand.  You want to help? Find Thor.” The call, or whatever it was, was disconnected.

 

Steve and Andrea did not have much time to process the request before they heard a voice booming down the hallway.

 

“Steve, what the hel is going on?”

 

Steve peered out of his room and was greeted by an irate Thor.

 

“Who at SHIELD decided to tell all of humanity that my sister approaches?  Everyone is beside themselves with fear and confusion. I don’t think we can protect them from her.”

 

“It wasn’t SHIELD.”

 

“Who else would be crazy enough to,” Thor saw Steve’s sheepish look.  “No.”

 

“He used your face, some people may actually think it was your message.”  Steve explained Loki’s plan to Thor who cast his eyes at the ground to listen.

 

“This is pure madness.” Thor finally said.  “It would explain what I’ve been hearing.”

 

“He’s telling the truth?” Andrea said in disbelief.  “You can hear humans pray to you?”

 

“For once he is.  Although I long to grant your prayers because I’m that kind of hero.  Or at least I always thought so. I’m surprised to learn Loki feels it too.  I thought he didn’t care.”

 

“Actually he said he’s intentionally sewn mistrust so humans won’t pray to him.” Detective Jones noted.

 

Thor laughed.  “That’s probably about half true.  At most. But it may explain a few things.”

 

“Is there merit to his insane idea, or should I be suiting up?” Captain Rogers asked.

 

“If you’re going to die you should die in uniform fighting till your last breath.  Otherwise there’s not much point in suiting up to fight my sister. And yes,” Thor looked meaningfully at his friend, “Loki’s is the best idea we’ve got.  She survived the explosion of Asgard. Your Earth weapons will only irritate her further.”

 

“He asked to see you Thor.  With humanity knowing about the prayers, his wife,” Detective Jones grew choked up.  Thor’s confirmation of how dangerous Hela was made her realize just how anxious she had already become and how much more frightened she was growing.

 

“I’ll find them.  We should greet Hela together anyway.  We’re the ones she wants.”

 

Thor took off running down the corridor.  Steve stepped back into his room and opened his closet.  His armored suit was inside a electronically secured cabinet that was not presently accessible, but his show suit was hanging on a simple hook.  

 

“You know, last time I got in a fight with the girl I was seeing right before the end of the world, I didn’t do so hot at making up with her on time.”  He ran his hand over the sleeve of the suit. “I, uh,” he turned around and raised his eyes to her for a split second before dropping his gaze back to the ground.  “I should stay mad at you for a while longer. But what Thor said about the suit’s got me thinking.” She walked towards him and put her hand on his. “If anything happens, I don’t want you to think.  I mean, I hope you know.” 

 

She stood on her tiptoes to plant a kiss on his cheek.  At the last second, he turned into it, wrapping his arms around her.  “Steve, I’m so sorry.” She said to him.

 

“Save it.  I might be shipping out tomorrow and I’ve never gotten to use that line before.”  He smiled, despite himself.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Loki looked down helplessly at his wife who had curled herself into a tiny ball in the corner of their gallery.

 

“The good news is my theory that an onslaught of prayers could drive you mad seems to be viable.” Loki offered unhelpfully.

 

“Glad I could be your guinea pig.”  She was not glad. “Isn’t your sister already mad?  Why would you want to make her more mad?”

 

“What are they saying to you now?” Loki tried to seem sympathetic.

 

“They’re asking me to appeal to Hela’s better nature, and yours.  They’re asking me to fight Hela for them. They’re asking me to sacrifice myself to Hela for their benefit.  And they’re asking me if they can meet Captain America.”

 

“I hope as many of them are sending their words to Hela.”

 

A few more equally futile attempts to console her later, they heard the familiar whoosh of a spinning hammer descending, followed by the thud of heavy footfall.

 

“If we survive this brother, I have so many questions about that statue.” Thor said looking amused.

 

“Don’t you like my plan?” Loki asked him.

 

“I hate it.  And, it’s ingenious. I hope you’ve outdone yourself.”

 

“I wish I could take all the credit.  I think Odin tipped me off to this solution on my last visit to Valhalla all those months ago.”

 

“Could you have implemented it without fighting your way out of the Avengers compound and hacking all of the SHIELD computers?”

 

“What’s hacking?”

 

“I don’t know, it’s what humans say when you’ve taken their computer system over.”

 

“Probably but it was more fun this way.  And if they wanted me to think of all the ideas they could have asked more nicely.  But we should stop bickering and help my wife.” Loki turned his attention to her.

 

“Actually it’s getting a lot better.”  She allowed herself to uncurl a bit. “Are they dissipating for anyone else?”

 

“Yes, now that you mention it.  I wonder what,” as Thor said it, Dennis came running in with his phone.

 

“Captain America is on television talking about you.  Oh, hello Thor.”

 

“We are fine for now Dennis, no need for the Thor welcome protocol we discussed.” Loki said dismissively.

 

“That sounds ominous.  What’s Steve saying?” Thor remarked.

 

“He’s just wrapping up now.  He’s pleading with people to comply with your request Thor.”

 

Loki looked askance at Dennis, disappointed his biggest fan fell so easily for such an obvious illusion.

 

“So while we are grateful to the Asgardians who walk this planet every day, and as honored as I am to protect all of you, the real power exists where it’s always been.  Inside each and every one of you.” Captain America pointed meaningfully across the small gathered crowd at his press conference, making sure to hit each camera. “I’m counting on you, don’t let me down.”  He saluted the camera as it cut to the commentators.

 

“To be fair, we could use an Asgardian roaming our skies.  I don’t know about you Jenny but I remember a whole lot of alien ships overhead recently.”

 

“I agree with you Harold, I won’t have any trouble sounding sincere when I tell Hela that I want her protection.” Jenny said with an unnervingly calm grin as though she were reporting on the weather.

 

“I would certainly prefer that to her murdering Thor.” Harold agreed.  “Captain sure did look great coming off his rest.”

 

“He deserves it.  And yes he did.” She winked.

 

“Good to see the humans take the end of the world so seriously.” Loki lamented.

 

“Yes, imagine what kind of person would make a cheeky comment in the middle of a dire scenario.” Thor remarked pointedly.   Loki ignored it. “Based on what I could tell from my reconnaissance we have a few hours before she arrives. We should rest.”

 

“Or relish our last moments alive.” Loki said.

 

“You’ve had lots of those, this will just be the latest.”  Thor said. Loki shrugged. “Why don’t you show me around.”

 

“The good stuff is in the basement,” Dennis offered before the brothers both said “no” in perfect unison.  

 

“Darling come spend time reading lovely poems about yourself with us while we wait to be executed by my sister will you?” Loki extended out his hand.

 

“Spend time with your brother, I’ll be along in a minute.”  Being someone who understood the need for time alone with one’s thoughts, Loki obliged.

 

She stepped back out onto the stage and sat down on the edge of it in a corner, looking out around at the people who considered themselves her fans.  None approached her. In fact they were shockingly respectful. There was certainly tension in the air surrounding the impending arrival of Hela and those engaged in the prayer shifts appeared intent on their assignments.

 

But primarily she sensed another mood.  These people felt a distinct sense of belonging in this strange, remote little place.  She looked up to survey them. This was a collection of people who fell on the fringes of society for a whole swath of the usual reasons.  Disabled. Biracial. Every variety of gender. Many had their noses in books or sketch pads. Others were strumming quietly at instruments while their companions danced or sang.

 

She really liked them.  

 

As furious as she was at her husband for building a temple to himself without discussion, she had to admit that the people who had come to it were her people.  If they came out of this alive, she hoped to spend more time with them.


	12. Rationalization

“It feels wrong.  Sitting here waiting for the alien invasion, not doing anything to prepare to fight.  Pleading with the alien to help us instead of take over the planet.” Bruce sat in the Avengers common room polishing his glasses nervously.

 

“Thor told us the same thing Loki did, weapons only make her stronger.  Discretion is the better part of valor.” Tony remarked.

 

“You’re sure that was Thor and not Loki disguised as Thor again?” Bruce asked.

 

“I asked him questions only Thor would be able to answer.” Natasha affirmed.

 

“Such as?” Bruce responded.

 

“What are Loki’s main flaws.” Natasha smirked.

 

“Thirty minutes and two beers later we were pretty convinced it was Thor.” Tony said.

 

“I can imagine.” Bruce chuckled, thinking back to how all of Loki’s mistakes were conveniently omitted from his stories the night of his bachelor party.  Mentally filling in those gaps was part of the fun of listening. He turned to the door as he saw Steve Rogers coming back from his press conference, still in his suit but with the star spangled facemask in his hands.  He stopped and looked around.

 

“Okay Tony, let’s get it over with.”

 

“Absolutely.  What are we getting over?”

 

“Whatever smart remarks you have prepared about the Odinson file notes on my first night with Andrea.  Let’s have it and never speak of it again.” Steve crossed his arms.

 

“I don’t follow Steve.”

 

“Whatever you’re going to say about me asking an empath for help with the courage to take home a woman.”

 

“Why would I joke about that Steve?”

 

“You always pick on me for my foibles.”

 

“I make fun of things like you saying ‘language’ and your old man jokes.  Steve, on top of some serious dad issues I have PTSD. You really think I’m going to make fun of you for having anxiety?”

 

Steve was holding his mask in both hands now.  “Well, I guess I assumed you would think less of me for being afraid of something so silly as a woman who likes me.”

 

“No.”  Tony sauntered over towards him.  “I’d think less of you for waiting so damn long to ask for help if I hadn’t done the same thing.”

 

“Yeah Steve, talk to Ann about your anxiety instead of asking some lady for magic pills at a party would you?” Bruce said.

 

“Ann just wants to talk about Thanos.” Steve said.

 

“Ann talks about whatever you talk about Steve.  And if you don’t want to talk to the therapist, come talk to us okay?  We’re your friends.” As Tony said this, Bruce went in for the hug. He came about up to the top of Steve’s sternum, but it was still a nice big hug even from down below.  After he got over being startled, Steve hugged him back.

 

“You gonna change or just pull up a chair in your captain suit and have a drink with us while we wait for the world to end?” Natasha asked him.

 

“I’d feel wrong out of uniform at a time like this.  We still have bourbon?” Steve sat on his usual stool.

 

“The real Kentucky for you Steve.” Tony went to retrieve it from behind the counter.  “I don’t have any jokes about your anxiety but I have 11 points of critique about that antique you’re wearing.  Let’s start with the smell and proceed through all the other senses in order.”

 

“All five? Why did you taste Steve’s uniform Tony?” Bruce asked.

 

“I’m that dedicated to good fashion.”  He pulled out four whiskey glasses and hoped it would be a long afternoon and even longer night, but worried as he always did it would get cut short.  “Nobody uses mothballs any more Steve.”

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

“You knew I could hear human prayers, that’s how you spoke to me when I sent the destroyer to attack you when I was king and you had lost your powers.”  Loki said to his brother.

 

“Sure, but I always thought you didn’t care about them.  You seldom talked about answering them.”

 

“Given my particular skill set, illusions, espionage, that sort of thing, unfortunately most of the requests I receive are fairly unsavory.”

 

“I can imagine.  But doesn’t that suit you?”

 

“To a point.  I don’t prefer being in the business of doing someone’s dirty work.  No one asks me to swoop in and hit a monster with a hammer. More like make their rival secretly disappear or turn their mistress into a swan so she can hide in the garden.”

 

“That’s why you’re so hostile to humans?  So they’ll think twice about making those requests from you?”

 

“I’m inclined to be accommodating, what can I say.”  Loki extended his arms wide in his signature gesture.

 

“You’re not.”

 

“No, I’m not.  Which is why I think the human prayers will work on Hela.  Yes I’m intentionally hostile so humans will think twice about demanding favors from me that they shouldn’t.  Because I do feel that longing to grant them even when I shouldn’t, and I don’t like it.”

 

“A smart strategy as always brother.”

 

“You could try it.  Slow down those requests to fly through and smite something.”

 

Thor shook his head.  “I didn’t tell you. Part of why I was so angry with you.  As Odin left the mortal realm, I began to hear the prayers to the All-Father.”

 

Loki scoffed.  “Typical. You really were his heir.”

 

“That’s what you have to say?  You don’t even want your own prayers, let alone the full array.  At least my years of swooping in prepared me for it. Your wife will need some adjusting.”

 

“So you hear their constant prayers to their supposedly omniscient deity?”

 

“Fortunately it’s not that bad.  That I think would drive me mad. No, it’s just the random assorted requests to no one in particular seem to filter their way to me now.”

 

“Such as?”

 

“Well, lately it’s mostly money.  The prayers for a lover have been delegated.”  Thor smiled and his brother smiled back despite himself.

 

A shadow passed across the room as Loki’s wife said from the doorway “she’s here.”  Thor and Loki looked at each other meaningfully and prepared to face their sister, perhaps for the last time.

 

“You two are even bigger fools than I thought.” Hela said with a smile as she dismounted her enormous wolf.  “You I haven’t met but I have my suspicions,” she said, turning to the newest honorary Asgardian.

 

“Good to see you as always big sister.” Thor remarked with a grin.

 

“Here I am, flying all the way across the galaxy to settle the score with you lot, and what do you think I find?”

 

“Well, you found us.” Loki noted.

 

“Apparently the people of Midgard are highly dissatisfied with the protection Asgard has provided them over the last few decades.  Were you aware of how many times they’ve been attacked by other worlds?” 

 

“I’d heard of a few,” Loki said innocently.

 

“And all of it on Odin’s and your watch.” She pouted at them before returning to her usual exaggerated smile.  “I was entirely prepared to be met as an invading force with whatever adorable weapons Midgard has produced, and instead I’m received as a hero.  Hela, help us, Hela, our gods are useless, save us!” she said mockingly.

 

“So you’re going to grant their prayers?” Thor said to his murderous sister.

 

“I don’t see how I have any other choice.  Odin failed entirely in his duty to protect this colony from invasion.  Naturally it falls to me.”

 

“The people of Midgard will be grateful Hela.” Thor said.

 

“I certainly hope so.”  She took a look around, sizing up the temple Loki had built.  “This is a bit quaint but the artwork is nice. Where’s mine?”

 

“They’ve only just heard of you and humans don’t build very quickly.  But I expect it will be rather grand.” Loki offered.

 

“See that it is.”  She turned to leave.

 

“Wait, you’re not here to kill us?” Mrs. Odinson blurted out before the brothers had the chance to hush her.

 

“Do you want me to kill you?” Hela said, as a long black spear appeared in her right hand.

 

“If you could find it in your heart,” Loki started but Hela cut him off.

 

“Loki, right?  I should stop calling you the scrawny one now that she’s here.  You should have heard the things they called you on Asgard. A greasy little weasel, a slimy little snake, a grubby little spider.   You get the idea, some combination of moisture and small creature.” Loki rolled his eyes. “Apparently you’ve somewhat ingratiated yourself here.  The humans are fond of all three of you actually. So I figured well, if I am to be Midgard’s protector, I could probably use their help even if they’re mostly useless.  And that rebellious Valkyrie of mine. You’re not my army but you may be the best I’ve got.”

 

“Very sensible sister.  I think the humans may have a welcome party planned for you if you’d like me to,”

 

“A party?  At a time like this with alien invasions every other week?  I think not. Tell the people of Midgard that I will take to the skies as their first line of defense against all the forces from outside the realms under Asgard’s protection that intend them harm.”

 

As Thor was trying to say he would pass along her message, she turned on her heels and leapt onto the back of her wolf, snapping his reigns with a loud grunt and taking off into the sky.

 

“You might be the dumbest genius I’ve ever met.” Thor said to Loki, pulling him in for a big hug.  Startled, Loki resisted but then accepted it. He had only just allowed himself to realize how much his heart had been racing.

 

“It would appear that the most powerful force in the universe is post-hoc rationalization,” his wife chimed in.  Loki nodded and Thor looked at her inquisitively. “The human prayers influenced her actions and she justified it as her own choice.”

 

“We must notify the humans of the good news.” Thor said, releasing his tense brother.

 

“Already done.” Dennis said.  “Got a thousand hits on YouTube.  Oh wait, two thousand.”

 

“YouTube?  You filmed this?” the goddess chuckled.

 

“Duh.  This was a historic moment, I hid on the stairs and filmed the whole thing.”

 

“Well done acolyte.  I should have expected nothing less from one of Loki’s followers than he would be hiding in the shadows creating a record.” Thor smiled.  “You two stay here. I think SHIELD and the Avengers may still be unhappy with what you did to their computer systems when you escaped, but since your plan worked, I may be able to work something out with them.”

 

As she watched her brother in law take off towards North America, she thought to herself how unnecessary it was for him to tell her to stay here.  Where else would she rather celebrate?

 

That night she lay with her husband as she had many times before.  Ordinarily her amplified emotions extended outwards, affecting the mood of those around them sometimes for miles.  But on this occasion, their heads were flooded with the energy humanity sent their way. Jubilant messages of gratitude and relief.

 

The magic was changed.  They did not yet know how.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you all SO MUCH for continuing to read parts I-III. I can't believe I'm finished with part III and almost finished with the entire work. Part IV is much shorter than the rest almost like an epilogue.
> 
> It has been so much fun to come this far and get all your feedback. Please enjoy the stirring conclusion and always feel free to hit my inbox with your thoughts, I love hearing from you. :)
> 
> Part IV is the most torture Loki part of the whole work because you have to. I tried not to and it just happened. I may take a break and do a one off featuring Melinda May and Valkyrie if there's any interest. 
> 
> Thanks again readers and secret readers, I <3 each of you.


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